My 11 year old was begging me to allow her to install snap chat as all her friends have it. She has a smart phone but we limit which apps she's allowed to install and the number of hours to 1.5 per day.

A quick look online and I could instantly see snap chat was definitely on the "no" list for me.

Looks like we made the right choice!

Snapchat made evil design design choices for child users.

* Content is deleted after frist view. No way to review content at a later time.

* Sharing of location foster surveillance among friends. Location can also leak to predators.

* Peeking on who your friends chat with is more surveillance.

And more stuff I dom't know about.

I've turned down, blocked, and scolded recruiters from both Snap and Bytedance because of this. No amount of fluffy TCP could make me work for these companies.

(fd: I worked at anduril, palantir, and mithril cap and had no qualms for a long time)

The whole app was a red flag from the start. Lets create a chat app where we can send timed photos and videos that self destruct. What could kids/creeps possibly use it for?

10,000 child sexploitation reports a month is... beyond alarming.

Harm based on the embedded dogma of a capitalist culture that wants to both YOLO every day away but also needs a new generation of serfs to make line go up

There's no separating the adults awareness they end up needy olds in hospice

Obvious self selection and anxiety no one will be around to dote on their biology when it's too old to care for itself; after a life of winging it and projecting zero obligation to assure the condition of others, best ram obligations down the kid's throats

Sorry contemporary American adults but ultimately you get the same dice role and to watch your society change and move on as every other generation before. Whether you are cared for or forgotten in a moldy room is the outcome of socialized capitalist dysregulation you prefer over socialized certainty

When an entire country's zeitgeist is "YOLO!" don't cry when everyone else is YOLOing and you too are forgotten

(2025) OP

Some previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43704382

This is by design and it's only purpose. A messaging system with self destructing messages that has allowed unfettered access by children since the day it launched. I never understood how this was acceptable and I'm still astounded.

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