7 Reasons Parents Should be Wary of Letting Their Kids Use Snapchat

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Social media apps are ever changing, making it confusing for parents to remain current on ploys teens use to keep them in the dark about they’re saying as fingertips frantically glide across smartphone and tablet touch screens.

Earlier this year, we told you about 50 texting and sexting terms your kids really don’t want you to know. The American Academy of Pediatrics found texting and sexting are a “normal” part of adolescent sexual development, but that doesn’t mean parents shouldn’t worry.

And their worries shouldn’t be limited to the messages kids are sending back and forth on their phones. They need to investigate the apps kids have installed as well.

The Snapchat application for iPhones, iPads and Android phones allows subscribers to send photos that quickly expire, increasing the temptation of teens to send embarrassing photos.

The photos disappear, but that doesn’t stop the person on the receiving end from quickly grabbing screenshots and circulating them beyond the intended audience.

Snapchat does notify the sender if the person receiving it takes a screengrab, but there’s a fairly common workaround. A receiver could use a digital camera to take the screenshot, and the photo that supposedly disappeared could be saved on someone else’s device.

That’s Problem No. 1 with Snapchat.

Problem No. 2 concerns parents who may be – and, experts say, should be – monitoring their teens’ social media use: Photos and messages disappear, leaving no record they ever existed.

Problem No. 3: Because photos supposedly evaporate instantly, teens may think the risk is lower their photos will be shared online and be more inclined to engage in sexting.

Problem No. 4: Snapchat and Facebook both claim photos can be permanently deleted. Forensics experts have poked holes in that promise, though, and have said photos can be retrieved from smartphones and other devices. And guess what? “You don’t necessarily need crazy forensic tools that allow you … to access the information,” Andrea London, of the forensics firm Stroz Friedberg, told Mashable.

Problem No. 5: Snapchat owns royalty rights to every “Snap,” or photo message, that users send. According to the application’s terms of use, Snapchat retains “nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such user content in connection with the services, subject to your use of privacy settings in the services to control who can see your user content.”

Related:

• Teen’s Nude Selfie Turns Into 5-Year Nightmare
• Sexting and Kids: Should Advent of ‘Sexting’ Prompt Legal Reform?
• 5 Teens in Rochester Sexting Scandal Referred to Juvenile Court
• 50 Texting Terms Kids Don’t Want Parents to Know
• Hundreds of Nude Photos Bomb Teen with New Smartphone

Problem No. 6: You may need a lawyer. According to the terms of use, users accept responsibility for activity occurring while they’re logged into the application. In one case, reported by the familyshare.com website, a 15-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl exchanged explicit photos, which the boy saved and his mother discovered. The families involved addressed and resolved the situation, but because the girl was 14, the boy could have faced child pornography charges and, if convicted, been forced to register as a sex offender.

Problem No. 7: Snapchat can become a runaway train if you don’t talk to your kids about the risks associated with its use. “Parents who allow their children to have SnapChat need to have a real, live, one-on-one chat … about the risks associated with the false sense of security that SnapChat may provide,” fatherhood.com said.

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Photo licensed under Creative Commons