Popular Photo-Sharing Apps Demystified: New Instagram/Snapchat Guides for Parents

It's hard not to notice the growing popularity of photo-sharing apps such as Instagram and Snapchat these days — especially among young people.

Instagram, which launched in 2010, today boasts 100 million active monthly users who send 40 million photos per day. Snapchap, not even two years in existence, saw a threefold increase in users between December and April alone — to over 150 million photos (or "snaps") per day.

That's an awful lot of photos being shared. For parents and other adults who are rightly concerned about protecting the safety and reputations of kids who use these apps, ConnectSafely has come to the rescue. This month, the Internet safety nonprofit released two new guides — the "Parents' Guide to Instagram" and "Parents' Guide to Snapchat" — that walk adults through the apps' privacy and safety features and advise talking with kids about these new favorite tools "with genuine interest, not fear."

The two guides join ConnectSafely's earlier parents' guide to Facebook and to Google+. (You can find all four guides here.)

Each one starts by addressing some basic questions adults often ask: "Why do kids love Instagram?" "What are the risks in using Instagram?" "Should my child's profile be private?"

They go on to cover such topics as controlling your own privacy and respecting that of others; managing profiles (on Instagram) and settings (on Snapchat); and reporting inappropriate photos and abuse. They each offer basic reminders about not sharing embarrassing photos you wouldn't want a college admissions officer — or Grandma — to see. Each also covers what to do if you're being harassed.



Snapchat, which allows users to send photos that can self-delete within 10 seconds, has been criticized as a "sexting" app, a notion its creators are quick to dismiss. And so the new Snapchat guide touches on sexting too (it notes that while sexting is a concern, "it's not nearly as common as some media reports have suggested").

The guide also explains how Snapchat photos don't necessarily delete and can in fact be captured in different ways by savvy recipients. (See these recent stories on Snapchat's not-so-disappearing photos in Forbes and the Huffington Post.) 



Each guide ends with some encouraging words for parents. From the Instagram guide: "... research shows that socializing face-to-face is still No. 1 with teens," even as new apps and services for digital socializing seem to pop up by the minute. And from the Snapchat guide:

"... there's no need to panic every time you hear a media report about something awful happening in social media. The reason the news media cover awful situations is because they're rare. How often do you read about planes landing safely?... Of course kids can get into trouble using Snapchat or any other service, but the same can be said for swimming pools. That's why we teach them how to swim."

So take heart: If you help kids to learn their own critical thinking and media literacy skills, they'll be more prepared to navigate any potentially deep waters.

For more on the growing appeal of Snapchat in particular, see this recent New York Times profile.

For more on the explosion of short-term photo-sharing services generally, and other key Internet trends of 2013, see this new report by Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers from the AllThingsD D11 Conference yesterday. (This chart shows Snapchat's growth from May 2012 to April 2013.)

From the 2013 Internet Trends report by KPCB

Oh, and check out ConnectSafety's post from earlier this week on the release of the 20th anniversary edition of "Child Safety on the Information Highway," a booklet on Internet safety first published when "the Information Highway" was a phrase people actually used. Written by Larry Magid, co-director of ConnectSafety and founder of SafeKids.com (and co-author of the new Instagram and Snapchat parent guides), the updated "Child Safety" guide (found here) covers harassment and bullying, online privacy and security issues, and more. Another great tool at your fingertips for keeping kids safe and savvy online.