Picture & video-sharing app gives false sense of security

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)  With smartphones and devices like iPads and iPods, kids today have the world literally at their fingertips. Now, a relatively new picture and video app called Snapchat allows them to communicate with friends - and it promises to leave no record of what was sent or received.

Here's how it works: the user takes a picture or records a video using the app and then sends it to a friend who also has a Snapchat account. The sender can determine the length of time - up to ten seconds - that the recipient will be able to see the image. Once the recipient opens the file, the app starts a countdown. When time's up, the picture or video "self-destructs." No one else can see it after that.

That's part of the app's appeal. There's no risk of the picture ending up in someone else's hands or being spread online. Or is there? Experts say nothing ever really disappears, and that's what is so dangerous about something like this in the hands of young kids and teens.

"The pictures are held in a server. The official word from Snapchat is that they're held temporarily," explained IPFW online expert John Kaufeld.

Even if the pictures and videos are only held temporarily by Snapchat, there are other ways to save them. For instance, the recipient can take a screen shot of the picture. When that happens, Snapchat notifies the sender. But according to a recent report by TechCrunch, hackers have even circumvented that by coming up with a way to secretly take screen shots. The recipient never knows the picture's been saved.   

There's also the risk that the image is being saved on another device. "Somebody, if they were really going to be sneaky, could use another phone to take a picture of it. And now you don't know what's happened to it," said Kaufeld.

In addition, a simple Google search will pull up an article called "How to save Snapchat videos without the sender knowing it." It's an online tutorial that shows just how easy it is capture and save the video by connecting the phone to a computer.

"I think that kids aren't aware fully of how long their digital shadow is," Kaufeld said. "They'll do something, they'll take a picture of it [thinking] 'That's awesome! That's funny!' and two years from now that picture's still gonna be around somewhere."

Seventh grader Carson Stier, who estimates she uses Snapchat as many as 200 times a day, said she and her friends understand that the pictures and videos they exchange don't completely disappear.

"It's gone to the person you're sending it to - and yourself - but obviously it has to go through somewhere else to get to that person," Carson said. "We all know that scary place that nothing goes away. So it's still there, but it's not there for you guys to see."

Carson said the images she and her friends send back and forth are completely innocent, but she knows teens could use the app for sexting or sending explicit photos. It's something she and her parents have had several conversations about.

Her mom, Marci, acknowledges there's no way she can really monitor Carson's Snapchat activity, but said in her case, it all boils down to trust. "We have a social media policy in our house, so Carson already knew the rules. I only have three basic rules. First, take a picture and then that's a picture you're gonna live with the rest of your life. Is that a picture you want? The second thing is make sure you're always sending things that are respectful of others, never defamatory comments. And the third one is basically making sure you're doing everything you're supposed to," said Marci. "If we were to catch her doing something inappropriate, we wouldn't hesitate to take that [phone or iPod] away."

So if it's not about sending private pictures or videos that you don't want others - including your parents - to see, what's the attraction? Carson said it's faster than taking a picture and sending it as a text message.

IPFW's John Kaufeld said it's just the way this generation communicates. "I might send a postcard, 'Here we are at King's Island and we're thinking of you!' And instead, you might do it with this [Snapchat] because you can add text to the pictures, you can dress them up a bit. You can have fun with it. And I see that as being the big driver, why kids are getting into it. They like it. It's kinda fun, it's goofy. But that darker side is there. I could see it being a temptation."

"Even as a parent, I've got to wonder how much is that our fears projected out, but the flip side of that is the sense of security that, 'I've sent that and now it's gone,'" Kaufeld continued. "That IS false security because once it's there, it can always be there. I just don't see kids getting that."