The overwhelming number of new smart phone cell phone applications has made parenting even more complex, with new "anti-parenting apps" such as Snapchat, giving kids new ways to hide cell phone content from their moms and dads, according FOX19.
Most teenagers today now have their hands on cell phones, and parents are often unsure of how to handle their children's phone usage.
The smart phone app Snapchat allows you to take a photo that is not saved on your cell phone, and send it to a contact, who only has access to the picture for a limited number of seconds after they have viewed it. "
"That one really scares me," said Shannon Gantzer, a Montgomery, Oh. mother of four. "My kids have it, and I got it because I wanted to see what it was. You know, take a picture of whatever they want and they believe that it's just gone. You can set it two seconds, five seconds, eight seconds, whatever and the picture and the picture goes away on the other person's phone."
The Snapchat app "leaves kids with a sense of security," making them think that their parents won't be able to see what kinds of pictures and messages they send out, and these pictures will be gone forever once they disappear.
However, the sense of security kids using Snapchat after left with may in fact be false, as about a month ago, Decipher Forensics out of Utah released a study exposing the truth: "not only are the pictures not deleted, but with specific software and some time, they can be lifted off the phone."
If a teen sends a racy photo to a friend, for instance, their friend can quickly take a screenshot of the picture before it is deleted, actively saving it to their cell phones.
"It's a picture or whatever that you send out. Well, you might delete it on your end, but somebody else already snipped it and saved it on their computer before you delete it," Gantzer said.
"Snapchat is just one of the many apps out there that claims to not save or actually delete, and with the right software you can almost always get something back," digital examiner at Decipher Forensics, Richard Hickman said.
Hackman's team works predominately with lawyers to pull info from cell phones, and after a few investigations, discovered the storage of Snapchat pictures. "Never believe that anything goes away whenever it's put online," Hickman said.
"[Kids] don't realize," said Melissa Wittenbaum, who works with Cincinnati Parent Magazine. "You put something down on paper or in writing, it will totally, totally follow you."
She said most parents are unaware of "anti-parenting apps" such as Snapchat.
"It's scary that they have all of these options set out in front of them and it makes parenting that much more difficult," Gantzer said.
She and Wittenbaum have spent time talking together on how to deal with the world of changing technology as a parent, and both agreed that if parents pay for their kid's cell phones, they have the right to check on their property. In addition, they agreed parents should keep up to date and educated on new technologies while also keeping an open dialogue with their children to establish a level of trust.
Click here to explore Snapchat's usage guide for parents.
