Snapchat Has An Underage Porn Problem - And No Clear Way To Fix It
The feature, which allows users to take photos and collect them into a slideshow that they can later send to contacts, was added in October 2013. Stories live for a day and then disappear, aligning with Snapchat's ephemeral feel - that nothing snapped can live forever.
Cooper Fleishman of The Daily Dot reports that since then, there's been an uprising of amateur gay porn, a network of young men, many underage, who take and share nude photos of themselves via Snapchat Stories.
Fleishman spoke to a man named John, who discovered the issue when he "followed a string of lewd Snapchats down a rabbit hole." What he found were tons of pornographic compilation stories.
This is, of course, fine. Snapchat users are able to share and accept any type of message they wish. The problem lies in the age of some of the users sending photos.
"Many of the young men added birth years to their usernames-Lickme88, Denver93-and some of those numbers were 97, 98, and even higher, suggesting the users were underage," The Daily Dot reports.
BoyConfessions and another account, BoysCollection, are just two of a number of Snapchat aggregators that specialize in X-rated compilations of teenagers and young-looking men in their 20s. They've amassed a cult following among young gay and bi men on Snapchat who are looking for new ways to meet strangers. The videos offer endless variety and an abundance of attractive men. Users submit themselves because they're looking to expand their network and find new friends on Snapchat.
The men aren't necessarily looking for photos of underage boys. In fact, most are actively not. "I don't feel like going to jail," one user wrote.
But underage users keep creeping in, as there is nothing stopping any user from sharing any image he wishes to share with any other user. That prompts the question: Are you in trouble if you willingly accept a Snapchat story from a user whose age you are unaware of? Or are you in trouble if you're the sender?
Putting an end to that, The Daily Dot reports, "Snapchat may have to compromise its core principle - user privacy - and take an active interest in what its users are sending."
Snapchat did not return Business Insider's request for comment.