Snapchat, sexting and cyberbullying - What do we need parents to know?

Abstract

Some of us were lucky to own a camera growing up and our teen years were punctuated by parents moaning about the time taken talking on the phone, via a landline. Callers who wanted to contact us would have to run the gauntlet with gatekeeping parents who answered the phone. How times have changed! With the advent of smartphones and tablets, young people are awash in visual images. Young people, now experts in multimedia production, curate photographs and videos that narrate their worlds. Immersed in a plethora of digital images, they use Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to story the minutiae of their daily lives. But what are the implications for educators? And how is this influencing the changing cultures of young people themselves? Snapchat is a disappearing media that was developed in 2011 and marketed to the 13 to 34 age bracket. With 100 million people using the application every day, it has taken hold among young people (Ingram, 2015). Although there has been a lot of research on Facebook, there are few studies into the use of Snapchat among young people and the implications for educators.