Johannesburg - The use of the fast-growing Snapchat app for sexting and its increasing popularity among the youth is “particularly worrying”.
That’s according to Dinesh Balliah, a lecturer in social media at Wits University and the site manager of Wits Vuvuzela Online.
She says the app is mainly used for sharing sexually explicit content.
Snapchat is an application for smartphones that allows users to send each other images and videos that “self-destruct” from servers after 10 seconds of viewing.
Snapchat has also spread to Twitter and Facebook, where accounts reveal sexual images.
“Young kids are assuming that there are no consequences to the sharing of sexual content, but there are serious consequences, like possible prosecution for the distribution of pornography or child pornography,” Balliah says.
She believes the app will become increasingly popular in South Africa.
Snapchat is not only used for the spreading of sexual images.
One student, Nomvula Mbambo, 18, says: “You can’t type certain feelings efficiently, and Snapchat allows your face, or whatever else you wish, to be an instrument of communication.”
Another student, Sadé Stevens, 18, says: “The cool thing about it is, if the moment is embarrassing, as quickly as you captured it, it’s gone.”
Despite the impression that Snapchat leaves no digital trail of content, Balliah warns that specialists are able to retrieve content, and users can capture screenshot images and save them before they self-destruct.
She says parents should teach their children about the dangers of the web. - The Star