We don’t like Snapchat. It has a history of allowing content that isn’t appropriate for kids even though the app is rated 12+ in the app store. The app is built around disappearing messages that are a nightmare for trying to prevent predatorial communication and sexting. Now, Protect Young Eyes has written an article highlighting the fact that, in just a few taps on your screen, you can get from Snapchat’s home page to Pornhub, the most popular pornography site on the internet. They even included a video that shows how easy it is to navigate to the adult site without ever leaving Snapchat’s app.
What Does This Mean for Parents?
Most filters for iPhone don’t monitor browsers in apps like Snapchat and Facebook. This is why the ability to connect to adult websites within these apps is so dangerous. It only takes a few taps on your screen to go from the Snapchat story to the “Premium” page on which you can click links to all of their other accounts. These links don’t open other apps that would be blocked by Screen Time or other parental control software. Instead, it opens in a browser within Snapchat, allowing access without being blocked by your filter or sometimes even reported by your Accountability software. The only real way to keep your kids off of those sites is to limit which apps they are allowed to use by blocking the app altogether.
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