Snapchat Dangers

[365millionusernames]

I am begging you all to not let your teens use Snapchat.

My 12 yo daughter has been asking for the app for about a year. It was always a solid no from me due to the geotagging locations and the disappearing messages.

I found out she had been downloading it secretly, then deleting so I wasn't seeing it, then re-downloading.

The app was still on there when I asked for her phone to check it. The police are now involved. Someone has been posing as a child from a nearby school she met once when with friends and after weeks of setting the scene, has been sending extraordinarily explicit messages. My daughter thought it was the little girl she knew.

This is devastating. I cannot go into details for obvious reasons but please protect your children, remove the app and check their phones.

It's surprising how many parents allow their kids to have various social media way too young. My DDs friend 8 is allowed TikTok. Maybe the parents are not aware how dangerous it is. Even if we are just talking local bullying but there is far far worse out there.

I have just let my DD13 download Snapchat mainly as I didn't want her to do it sneakily. The conditions are we turn off all tracking and I can check on this at any time. She is also not allowed to add anyone that isn't in her phone book, so no one she hasn't met. I will monitor it and see how things go!