The Snapchat Dilemma and How Parents Can Overcome It
Written by Trevor Eaton, Posted on , in Section Therapy News
It seems like there is a new social media platform that comes out every week and just as you get the hang of one, your kids have all jumped ship and are no longer using because it’s “uncool” to use the same thing as their parents or grandma. Teens have this sense that they want to share their thoughts, feelings, and pictures with everyone but their parents. They establish this false sense privacy. Snapchat is one of the newest social media methods that tries to put privacy back into the social aspect of sharing. It works by sending a picture to another person that has a snapchat account. The recipient can view the photo for 10 seconds and then it is erased forever from the snapchat servers.
Why even use a service like Snapchat?
Ephemeral messaging is the concept of sharing a moment in time with other people and then for that moment to disappear forever. You are able to share what you want without the long term ramifications of having that photo or text stored for others to see years down the road. There have been instances where people have missed out on job opportunities or admittance into certain colleges because of a photo or post on a social media website that they found and didn’t like.
What are the dangers of Snapchat?
Anything that is posted or shared with someone else either online or through a messaging service should always think about the future of what could happen. Snapchat is designed to erase the photo 10 seconds after it has been sent, but the recipient can use the built features of their phone and in less than 2 seconds from receiving the photo, take a screenshot and save the image. They can then do whatever they chose to with the photo. Snapchat tries to inform the senders if the receiver has taken a screenshot but there are ways around this too.
Getting trouble with the law
Teens see Snapchat as a private way to sext nude images to each other. Unfortunately, take the story of 10 young boys who were distributing nude images they had received on Snapchat from other girls in their school. These teens are now facing child pornography charges and are no longer allowed to use any electronic device that connects to the internet, unless it is school related and supervised by their parent.
