Snapchat
What is Digital environment ?
Apps and environments young people use
- Social media
- Chat groups
Snapchat is a social media and private messaging platform.
Risks and motivations
Risks
Young people who use Snapchat may be exposed to digital risk factors like:
Young people using Snapchat may also experience:
Motivations
Young people might use Snapchat to:
- build relationships and networks
- build confidence
- make money
- make daily life easier
Young people’s voice
How young people engage with the environment
Streaks - you’ve gotta send them one time a day. Like, you’ve got to snap them and they’ve got to snap you one time a day... when I get up I snap them and then when I go to bed I snap so that I never lose ‘em. But some people they.. do, like, one when they get up, one when they come in from school, one when they, like, have dinner and everything cos they, like, definitely don’t, like, wanna lose ‘em. But I’ve, kind of, realised you only need to do it two times a day, like, maybe even once. So then it don’t waste too much time. Cos all you have to do is take a picture of, like, the floor or, like, a black screen. And then send it, like, just press down on people you wanna send it to. It takes about two minutes, like, less than that. I’ve got quite a lot [of streaks] I’ve got, like, 30, 40. I think it’s, like, just a good idea... When you’re at school and everything, it’s kind of a way to brag as well, like, “Oh yeah, like, my highest streak’s, like, 200.” .. And then they are like, “Oh, I’ve only like a hundred” or something So I’ve got, like, 200 day streak with my closest mate. It’s, kind of like, good, ‘cos, like, we speak to each other, like, every day. It just shows that we’re tight
DIGITAL ROMANCE: A research project exploring young people’s use of technology in their romantic relationships and love lives. Brook & CEOP 2017
Young people say Snapchat’s various functions are why they use it to share nudes 1. It’s easy to make connections Young people report that features such as Quick Add make it easy for people to make contact with new accounts. This can be peers and people they know as well as strangers who they don’t know. As a result, many of the young people interviewed for this research were in contact with hundreds of different people via Snapchat across their peer groups, local areas, the UK or internationally.
You get added by them and you look on Snapchat and on Snapchat you can’t tell who anyone is ‘cause it’s just a user name, so you add them back and then they message you and they’ll be, like, 30, and you’re like ‘How did you even get my Snapchat?’. [They know to add you using] Quick Add. I don’t know how it comes about but it’s random people.
Ella, 17, Birmingham, DE.
I was sitting in the pub with my sister and my boyfriend and I had a random Snapchat add and I was like ‘Who is this?’ and I accepted it and he straightaway sent me a message […] and I opened it up and it was just a dick and I screamed and threw my phone on the table.” Morag, 22, Edinburgh, C2 “I could just open my Snapchat, message them being like ‘Who’s that?’ and the next thing you know, they could be asking for nudes or straight up sending one.
Danielle, 16, Rochester, DE
Not Just Flirting- The unequal experiences and consequences of nude image-sharing by young people, Revealing reality, 2022
What you can do
How to report content in this environment
How to close an account in this environment
![](https://online-risk-guide.barnardos.org.uk/transforms/_540xAUTO_crop_center-center_none/3239/GettyImages-1405778995-1.webp)
Share your experience of Snapchat
You can tell us about:
- other terms you might have heard
- conversations you’ve had with young people
- a related platform or app
- another related risk or harm