By Paul Grossinger
Nothing keeps a parent up at night like the feeling that their children are up to something they will later regret – and they are powerless to prevent it. Snapchat is the personification of that fear. Snapchat, a new text and image sending phenomenon on the iPhone and Android smartphones, enables users to send something to another use that self-destructs after ten seconds. Unless someone takes a screenshot (and Snapshot notifies the user if they do), there is no trail and no evidence. In other words, Snapchat is sexting and, worse, cyber-bullying nirvana. Most parents’ current tactics for managing their children’s smartphones don’t work against Snapchat. Reading their text messages? No, because Snapchat is a separate app, not a text message. Checking their phone every night? No, because the evidence is gone – forever. So, how can parents prevent Snapchat from potentially damaging their child’s future through mobile bullying or sexting?