Millions of kids use Snapchat every day, and according to one former prosecutor, predators know exactly how to find them there.
Zack Yurick spent five years prosecuting child sexual abuse cases before switching to civil litigation so he could go after the platforms enabling them, and Snapchat has become the center of his practice. In this conversation, he walks through exactly how the app's most popular features work against kids, why the safety settings most parents rely on don't do what they think, and what changed this year that finally lets these companies be held accountable in court. If you're a parent, this is the one conversation to listen to before your kid opens the app again.
Key Takeaways:
Snapchat's vanishing messages erase the evidence parents or investigators need most.
Most online predators in Zack's cases fall between 28 and 38 years old.
Duplicate Snapchat accounts take nothing more than a new email and username to create.
Zack argues Snapchat already knows users' real ages from the data it collects.
Snapstreaks trigger the same psychological pull as a slot machine.
Find Friends has directly connected predators to kids in several of Zack's cases.
Snap reportedly handles around 220 suspected sextortion cases a day.
Section 230 shielded social platforms from lawsuits for nearly three decades.
Zack wants Snapchat made safer, not banned.
His top advice for parents is to audit their kid's friends list tonight.
If you or someone you know experiences sextortion, NCMEC recommends blocking the account without deleting it and reporting through the CyberTipline or 1-800-THE-LOST, not relying on 911 alone.
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