Larry Magid: Snapchat Releases Version For Kids 13 And Under

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— Photo and video sharing app Snapchat has created a new version just for children under 13 called SnapKidz.

One of my colleagues posted a comment that said, 'it's all snap and no chat'. You have the ability to go ahead to take pictures and draw on them, but you save them locally to your phone.

This gets around the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which would mean they would need parental permission for a kid under 13 to use an app that uploaded to the internet and shared information.

Another thing it gets around is the concern that some young people would take inappropriate pictures with Snapchat and share them. First of all they'd be seen and it is not impossible to save, to cache or to forward the pictures even though the purpose is to have it disappear in 10 seconds or less. This gets around that because they never get sent.

There are a number of caveats that parents should be aware of. Images can still be sent; even if you're not sending them from Snapchat, you could still be sending them from email or Facebook or Twitter.

Another problem is kids, of course, could lie about their age to say they're at least 13. They could also set up a new account after being initially turned down for another.

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