Is There a Dark Side to Snapchat?

Is There a Dark Side to Snapchat?

Like most social media apps today, Snapchat, too, has a strong footing in terms of users.

Most of these users are children and teenagers, however. But despite the app’s initial lewd beginnings, it has now cemented a loyal following, and numbers continue to rise.

So is the image-sharing connectivity app nothing more than another tool to stay in touch with friends? Or is there a secret side that parents ought to know about?

What is Snapchat?

Snapchat is an application for mobile devices that allows users to send photos and videos (called snaps) to other users.

However, unlike with photos or videos sent via text or email, those sent on Snapchat disappear seconds after they're viewed. The sender gets to decide how long the shared multimedia will stay online, which could be between one to 10 seconds after it's viewed.

The idea of Snapchat is that users can send time-limited photos that might be embarrassing or just silly without the fear of them making their way to other social media sites where they might live forever.

SNAPCHAT IS WILDLY POPULAR, WITH 41% OF TEENS AGES 13 TO 17 USING THE APP, ACCORDING TO PEW RESEARCH.

In 2020, Snapchat had an average of 218 million daily active users that generated over three billion snaps a day.

Snapchat comes with a multitude of problems for parents, though.

Because Snapchat doesn’t save images and messages, it can be difficult to monitor usage. That is where the Xnspy remote monitoring tool can come in handy. It allows parents access to keep tabs on their child’s Snapchat through the screen recorder.

But one thing where external apps can’t help parents is knowing whether the person who receives your child’s pictures has saved them or not.

To Snapchat's credit, if a receiver takes a screenshot of the photo, the sender is notified, but that may not be enough to prevent the photo from being shared later with others.

It's also tempting for teens to use Snapchat for "sexting." Snapchat itself admits that up to 25% of users may send sensitive content regularly.

Ensuring Safety When Using Snapchat It's important to note that Snapchat does have a minimum age of 13, which complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.