Two Virginia Tech freshmen charged with kidnapping and murdering 13-year-old Nicole Madison Lovell from Blacksburg, Va., communicated with her online through the popular messaging app Kik.

Kik and anonymous apps like it have been linked to a growing number of child sexual abuse cases that the Rutherford County and Cannon County Child Protective Investigative Teams have been working, said Child Advocacy Center director Sharon De Boer.

"Most parents and grandparents in our community know about Snap Chat and Instagram, but they are not familiar with Kik and Yik Yak," De Boer said. "The Child Advocacy Center's concern is that Kik and apps like it are anonymous and pedophiles are finding and communicating with our children through these anonymous apps."

Kik estimates that 40 percent of American teenagers are using their app. Kik and Yik Yak shield the user from view which makes it difficult for child abuse investigators to know who is using it and how they use it. In the Virginia homicide, Kik cooperated with the FBI in the investigation that led to arrests of David Eisenhauer, 18, and Natalie Marie Keepers, 19, both from Maryland who were enrolled at Virginia Tech.

"Every day we talk to parents and grandparents about the sexual abuse of their child," De Boer said. "When we talk to them about Kik and Yik Yak, it is typically new news to them. When they look at their child's phone they discover that the Kik app has been on their child's phone for months. This has allowed a pedophile to have anonymous access to their child."

Kik was founded in Canada in 2009. It offers free texting, e-commerce, and content delivery. The appeal to pedophiles is privacy and anonymity. It allows pedophiles to find children and communicate with them anonymously.

"We want to encourage parents and grandparents to go through their child's phone," De Boer said. "If you see the Kik or Yik Yak app, talk to your child about who they are anonymously communicating with. Inform your children that pedophiles use these apps to target children and victimize them. For their safety, you and your child need to remove this app from their phone."

For more information on how to protect your child from child sexual abuse, contact Ryan Wallace at the Child Advocacy Center and schedule a "Darkness to Light" child sexual abuse prevention training for your church, business, civic group, PTO, women's group, or men's group. Wallace can be reached at 615-867-9000 or ryanawallace@bellsouth.net.