WILLY EXPOSED IN SNAPCHAT EXPLOIT

Reekwind: the supposed disposability and ("traceability" of a screenshot) of a snapchat is the very thing that makes it seem less risky a medium for sexting than an MMS, email or even webcam might to a naieve or technically illiterate person. I can imagine teenage kids using the supposed "security" of such an app to pressure each other into pictures that some of them might have otherwise had the good sense not to send (especially, when, as Dannie pointed out, one of those involved is more technically literate than the other).

We mistakenly consider young people to be technically literate because (a) their use of technology is almost universal and (b) because those of us who used as much tech at the same age in the recent past had to be (e.g. hacking the Windows registry, setting up LANs, over-clocking PCs or even typing in large blocks of code in order to play a game). The reality is that tech has become so accessible, those that use it don't need to know all that much about it any more. While on the surface this is a "good thing", it doesn't come without it's problems.

Reekwind wrote: »

But I think that this focus on security is almost entirely an adult concern. The reality is that most teenagers who are about to send out a revealing picture of themselves aren't going to stop and think about the potential ramifications - if they did then there would be no such pictures floating around the internet in the first place.

If Snapchat has increased the number of naked pictures being sent out (and it's impossible to say whether it has) then it's because added convenience the app adds. I don't believe that it's due to the belief that everything is now untraceable; particularly since every teenager who has used Snapchat is also aware of the screenshot function.

But when an advertised feature of the app is that you'll be notified if a screenshot is taken, it seems a lot easier to imagine those border-line kids. The ones who might think for a minute and be tempted over the edge of the bad decision by teenage hormones and the promise of at least the knowledge that the other person has broken their trust.

Hell, I can remember chatting in Yahoo Chat in the late 90's with girls who would show their faces on webcam rather than sending a pic because "it was safer". No matter what precautions are put in place there'll still be teenagers who make foolish decisions (witness Slane Girl and the recent Tiesto stuff).

That there are apps out there like this make me all the more determined that my daughter will be tech savvy before she gets near the internet. That she's heard "horror stories" of the repercussions of such pics turning up on-line. She may well still end up sending things and/or having them leaked but it won't be through ignorance and while I'll do everything I can to protect her, it's my belief that people have to live with the consequences of their choices and my experience that it's far easier to accept someones mistakes when they were the result of a betrayal rather than their own ignorance. We all feel sorry for the kid whose supposedly loving boyfriend leaks her pictures, less so for the idiot who sends almost identical images to someone else's boyfriend or the internet at large: an element of "well, what did you expect would happen?" comes into play imo.