While social media can be a fun way for young people to keep in touch with their friends, it can pose risks.
Mark Dodds, 38, used Snapchat to incite numerous girls, aged between 8 and 15, into carrying out sexual acts over live video calls. Dodds then used covert recordings of these calls as leverage, blackmailing his victims into further acts by threatening to distribute the videos further if they failed to comply with his requests.
When arrested at his Spennymoor home, Dodds was found to have amassed thousands of indecent images, which were recovered from multiple devices found at his home.
Dodds was jailed for 20 years and will be on an extended six year licence after his release after pleading guilty to 58 offences and being found guilty of five charges of sexual assault and one of inciting them into sexual activity after a trial.
Mark Dodds
(Image: handout)
While Snapchat is rated 13+, many children want to be on the social media platform earlier and parents can find themselves caving to the request.
Therefore, it is important to talk to youngsters about the dangers of social media and how to keep safe. There are also a number of safety features you can follow to help keep your child safe.
The NSPCC has shared tips on its website on how to keep your child safe and what safety features are available.
What age-rating is Snapchat?
The platform is rated 13+.
How does Snapchat work?
The platform mainly operates as a messaging app where users can communicate with each other using videos and images. However, there are also other features available including private chat, games, and voice notes. You can also create short videos that can be posted to a public feed.
1. Make sure they sign up with the correct age
Set up your child’s Snapchat account together to make sure they sign up with correct age. This will automatically enable settings that help to limit unwanted contact from adults and access to certain features.
2. Talk to them about how to feel good on social media
Children and young people can face lots of different pressures online. Use Childline’s advice about How to feel good on social media to help give them the tools to manage their wellbeing online.
3. Set rules around friends
Before your child starts using the app, talk to them about who they can be friends with on the app. Tell them to come to you if they receive a friend request from someone they don’t know.
4. Know where to report
There is a chance that your child could come across inappropriate or upsetting content on Snapchat. If this happens, you should report it to the platform. To report a Snap or a story, press and hold on it, then select ‘Report Snap’.
5. Talk about what is ok / not ok to share
Ensure that your child knows what personal and private information is, and what is, and is not, appropriate to share online.
6. Explore the safety features
Read below about the 10 safety features that are available, like privacy settings and ‘Snapchat Family Centre’.
What safety features are available on Snapchat?
Family centre
Snapchat’s family centre gives you an overview of your child’s activity on the app. By linking your accounts to your child’s, you can see a list of their friends and who they have contacted in the last seven days – but not the content of those messages.
Family centre also gives you access to a confidential reporting service that allows you to report any concerns directly to Snapchat’s Trust and Safety team.
Ghost mode
Enabling this will stop other users from seeing your child’s location. To edit location settings go to the cog button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The enable ‘Ghost mode’ and select ‘until switched off’ to make sure it stays enabled.
Limit contact from adult users
Snapchat has restrictions to help limit unwanted contact from adults. Adults will not be allowed to add young people who are 17 and under unless they have a certain number of friends in common. This won’t stop all contact from adults but it will help limit it.
Privacy settings
There are different privacy settings available that will help limit who can see your child’s account and contact them.
Who can contact me – this lets you manage who can contact your child.
Who can view my story – here you can block specific people from viewing their story
To explore different privacy settings available, select the cog in the right-hand side of the screen and select ‘privacy’
Default chat functions
By default, you can’t chat to someone on Snapchat unless you are friends. Make sure to speak to your child about who they accept friend requests from.
Reporting
To report another user, press and hold their Snapchat ID, select ‘More’ and ‘report’.
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