When she was 16, Jasmine wasn't overly concerned about Snapchat, the then-new social media app that was gaining popularity. Her friends were joining, and she felt the familiar fear of missing out, just as she had when she joined Facebook at age 12. Now in her 20s, Jasmine recalls that her teachers were well-informed about Facebook's risks, but not about Snapchat.
'FOMO is the biggest thing when you're young,' she says. 'I can't come into school and hear, "Did you see what Charlotte posted?" Everyone saw it, so I need to see it, too.'
Snapchat's media disappears within 24 hours unless screenshots are taken, which Jasmine later discovered her boyfriend had done repeatedly. She met him on the app at 16 and communicated with him almost exclusively there, making their exchanges feel temporary. 'You could write the most abusive message in the world, and you send it on Snapchat,' she explains. 'Well, I've got no evidence of that occurring.'
After they broke up when Jasmine turned 18, she was shocked to learn that her ex had been sharing her explicit images, which he had coerced her into sending, via a dating app. One of his dates contacted her on Instagram, concerned that something was wrong. 'I didn't remember these images existed. Why is it even here? Why is there a Snapchat filter on it? What is going on?' Jasmine says. 'Who else has my Instagram? Who else has these images? Who else has my Snapchat? Who has my number?'
Although Snapchat notifies users of screenshots, Jasmine was unaware that her images were being shared with strangers. Her ex continued to harass her and threatened to share more underage pictures. The nonconsensual sharing of explicit images is a criminal offense in the UK, and Snapchat prohibits sharing nude images of anyone under 18. Jasmine reported her ex, and he was arrested, but prosecutors said a case would require her testimony, which she found too traumatizing.
The ordeal led to years of depression, but Jasmine has since recovered and works with the NSPCC to promote online child safety. However, she disagrees with the government's announced ban on social media for under-16s. 'If we didn't have social media, we would have found a more dangerous way of doing things,' she says, referencing the dark web. She notes that outside, teens have fewer options due to closures of youth centers and playgrounds.
Jasmine misses platforms like PictoChat and Club Penguin, which she describes as 'little safe boxes.' Experts call these 'third places' outside home and school. 'Creating spaces which are safe is what we should be doing, not taking away things,' she argues. 'We could put more money into things like reverse image searching – if that was around when it happened to me, I could have used it.'
The NSPCC reported that Snapchat was involved in about 50% of the 7,300 social media-related child sex abuse image crimes last year. Snapchat removes such content and reports it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. NSPCC CEO Chris Sherwood supports the ban, urging continued pressure on Big Tech.
Education expert Sophie Stocks warns that blocking access isn't effective. 'Playing whack-a-mole with individual tools and sites is not an effective way of trying to address the problem,' says the vice president at Smoothwall. 'Technology is the future and young people need to learn how to use it responsibly, not have their access blocked.'
Snap Inc. told Metro: 'Sexual exploitation of young people is an abhorrent crime, and we are committed to combating it. We prohibit sharing nude or sexually explicit images of anyone under 18, and tell our users never to send or save even their own sensitive images.' Regarding the ban, they added: 'We share the government's objective of protecting young people from online harm. However, because the majority of time spent on Snapchat is in private messaging between friends and family, an outright ban that disconnects teens from those relationships doesn't make them safer – it may simply push them to less safe platforms.'
