Now You See Me...

Snapchat Icon

...now you don't! That could well be the byline for a relatively new app called Snapchat (available for iPod touches, iPads, and Android devices). The premise of the app is that you take a picture of yourself, send it to a friend, and it disappears in seconds, never to be seen again. If you look up its rating on the App Store, you'll find it's suggested for people 12 and older for these reasons: Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor; Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References; Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes; Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity.

Now a picture app seems relatively harmless, right? Think again. Apparently a major use of this app has been for sexting, that "practice" of taking sexually provocative pictures and sending them to someone else. You have probably heard the horror stories of people who have sent inappropriate pictures of themselves to "friends" only to see them plastered in the school hallways or on Facebook. Snapchat takes away that concern. Now you can take a picture, send it along, and determine how many seconds it can be viewed. According to a recent article, something like 50 million "snaps" are sent each day!

So what's the bottom line for parents? Make sure you know what your kids are doing online. What apps are they using? What are the ratings of those apps? (Remember, these are apps that are rated according to secular standards.) How are they using these apps? How do you monitor their online behavior? It's not an easy job by any stretch, but it's certainly worth it to make sure you're doing all you can to be "in the know" about your child's online safety.