SOCIAL MEDIA APPS TO KNOW
Snapchat (“Snap”)
Since its release in 2011, Snapchat has remained one of the most popular social media applications that our youth are using to communicate and share their digital lives. With over 414 million daily active users worldwide and over 4.75 billion Snaps created every day, 9 Snapchat is the de facto medium of communication for students in grades 6 -12. The reason for its popularity is that it turned text communication into a visual experience that allows users to send disappearing photos that leave behind (almost) no evidence and for the most part, do not become part of our children’s digital footprint s. The foundational feature that makes Snapchat desirable to our youth is the disappearance of photos/videos after they are opened. Users can set a viewing time of as little as 1 second up to 24 hours after which, once viewed, the image or video is deleted from the recipient’s device and from Snapchat’s servers as the company claims . 10 Snapchat allows users to take still photos, record short videos, add text, and create drawings to send to a personalized, and typically private, list of friends. However, nothing stops the recipient from taking a screenshot or using a different device to take a picture or the image or screen recording of the video. Note: if you take a screenshot using the recipient device, Snapchat will notify the sender that you have taken a copy. This is also why the app appeals to our children, as the concept is that you cannot save/screenshot the image without notifying the original sender. Despite news headlines that suggest Snapchat is “just a sexting app” or one that is only used to send nude photos, this is not the case and represents a very small usage of the app. However, it is important for us to know the relevance of this as parents and caregivers, as Cyber Tip notes 74% of sextortion incidents occur on either Snapchat or Instagram. 11 We invite you to watch the video below for a general overview of Snapchat.
Video by YouTube user Simple Alpaca.
Snapchat Lingo
9 Snapchat Demographic Stats: How Many People Use Snapchat in 202 4 ? 10 Snapchat Support 11 Cyber Tip
9
Powered by FlippingBook