Snapchat has become a safe place for child predators to lurk because of Snapchat’s promise of privacy. There is nothing wrong with privacy until it starts leading to the sexual harassment and exploitation of minors under the age of 18. Snapchat is quoted as being ‘child predators’ favourite app’ by the Sun. According to Forbes, Snapchat’s AI also gave a 13 year old child tips on how to have a romantic time with an 18 year old. There have been thousands of reported cases of child predators on Snapchat preying on minors. And what is Snapchat doing to protect these children? Absolutely nothing. 

Firstly, Snapchat’s reporting system only allows for the last 10 messages exchanged to be read by the Snapchat team. This means that the bulk of these disturbing conversations are completely ignored, which means that Snapchat is blind to the extent of a situation and are less likely to take action. 
Secondly, Snapchat does not allow any other evidence to be sent along with reports. For example, if the two meet on a different app and then move to Snapchat, Snapchat is blind to any interaction that might have happened previously and may be very incriminating. 
Thirdly, when reports are made, Snapchat is very unlikely to take them seriously. They have stated very recently that a 19-year-old asking for a 14-year-old’s breast size and asking her to come to the bedroom and undress ‘does not violate [Snapchat’s] Community Guidelines’. 
Fourth, Snapchat’s ‘Quick Add’ feature has no age restrictions of any kind, meaning that predators can easily be recommended other minors to prey on after they have already been exploiting one. Furthermore, it means that minors can be recommended predatory accounts in their own quick add.

Quite frankly, I am appalled by Snapchat and its lack of care towards children and towards their users. And this petition isn’t even the first to call for action!

Therefore, the demands I have are as follows:

1) Allow entire conversations — not just the last 10 messages — to be linked in a report, to properly give a picture of what has been said and the full extent of the sexual harassment of the child.

2) Allow for any taken screenshots to be sent with the report, and if a person is reporting an account, allow them to take a screenshot that will not notify the other user. If the user has other evidence, allow them to send this as well.

3) Suspend all accounts accused of sexual harassment of minors, child exploitation, or predatory behaviour towards children immediately after the report is made. The accounts may be reinstated if it turns out to have been a false report. However whilst the account is being investigated, children need to be protected from potential harm. 

4) If an account is repeatedly reported for predatory behaviour towards those under the age of 18, do not reinstate their account. Completely block it. 

5) Report any grooming, child exploitation, sexual harassment of minors, or predatory behaviour towards children to the authorities. Do not pause or hesitate or pick and choose which offences you consider to be bad. 

6) Rewrite all community guidelines, as they are clearly not well-defined and are not effective enough if they allow such behaviour to continue to occur and thrive. 

7) Only suggest quick adds that are within the same age range as the account, unless that person is already within the contacts of the Snapchat user. This will make it so that only fellow minors, and the Snapchat user’s family members or other adults known in real life, will be suggested to them. 

Please sign this petition, and help make these demands a reality.