In modern society, young individuals have developed the habit of faking their age by presenting a smaller age than their actual age especially with the increased use of text, apps and social media channels. Of the deceptive behaviors that occur in dating contexts, deception about age in internet-mediated communications may be especially risky, especially when one of the parties is engaging in sexting or other forms of Sexual Communication. This article focuses on such factors as potential dangers, credibility and necessity of truth in online exchange or interaction and ways by which the potential dangers or risks can be eliminated.

The Risks of Lying About Age:

Legal Consequences:

Sexting is prohibited if the recipient is under the legal age, and depending on the state or country, even if a teenager claims to be the legal age, it is still a crime to send a sext or even engage in a sexual text conversation. Age is also well protected by law, and thus, any form of dishonesty in this aspect is heavily punishable by the law.

Emotional and Psychological Impact:

If one starts having intimate communication with another person under some pretense, the other party is likely going to be emotionally hurt. If the person who was deceived discovers the real truth he or she will start feeling that he or she was betrayed, they will be shameful and have a hurt feeling.

Exploitation and Abuse:

However, when people cause a deception concerning their ages, they come across certain doors to manipulation as well as exploitation. Some predators may look for such people who perhaps are faking their age or who have low understanding of the dangers associated with such discussions.
How to Protect Yourself:

Honesty is Key:

Many young people try to minimize risks and avoid dangerous situations; thus, the truth is the best strategy here – always be honest with your age and intentions online. I could endanger the lives of other people if they follow my advice, based on which they will make a wrong decision, fully trusting me.

Be Cautious in Online Interactions:

Do not talk to strangers on-line, it is always safe to be careful. As for age or location do not disclose it unless you are completely sure the conversation is not fake.

Educate and Empower:

People of all ages should be informed on the dangers of sexting and electronic messaging. Current crop of schools, parents, and the communities should give direction on how to prevent being a victim of LOVE in the INTERNET.

Conclusion: It has been observed that, getting involved in an online tale and giving wrong information regarding age may result in entailing legal and emotional consequences. It is crucial to explain to everyone, but it’s particularly important for youth, guidelines of civilized communication in the Internet with regard to honesty, non-interference with personal space and respecting other people’s opinion. It depends on the ability to raise awareness and increase people’s responsibility for each other, so that the Internet was not the arena of violation and shameful cases but a highly civilized and safe space.

Out of the changes that have occurred in human society in the modern world, the process of communication has changed most significantly. Facebook with its acquired youths for instance, Snapchat has brought a new dimension of close contact in communication particularly among youths. This is where non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit images befell more commonly known as sexting, through social media platforms such as Snapchat. That behavior, of course, is not new, but given the layout of Snapchat as a platform, it’s a perfect medium for such interactions. But here are the risks of Snapchat sexting, especially when using others’ usernames, so common on the site:

Why Snapchat?

Snapchat took its time to gain popularity due to the provision of service that allows people to send messages which disappear after being read which made it safer for personal conversations. The expectation is that the message once seen will not be available to other users again and this offers people a level of privacy. Such perishable nature of images and videos has ended up promoting cases of sexting. This study shows that many participants prefer making explicit material available when they do not foresee the possibility of its storage.

Public Sharing of Snapchat Usernames

Some of the surveyed Snapchat participants share their usernames with complete strangers in open forums, social networks, or dating platforms to establish contact. This leaves a door open for one partner to send out unwanted messages requesting for more and more of such material. The use of sharing the username on the snap chat exposes one to many people and more stalkers including the anonymous ones hence putting one at risk of being harassed.

Some even sell self-exploitation; they trade naked pictures and videos for money or gifts; thousands have transformed their Snapchat usernames into a bartering currency in the underworld.

The Dangers of Sexting Through Snapchat

Despite Snapchat’s attempt to offer privacy features, sexting on the platform presents significant risks, such as:

Screenshots and Screen Recording: However, Snapchat warns users as soon as someone takes a screenshot of that particular content; there are other ways to bypass these restrictions like using another tool or another device. It will make users relaxed and precautious since they are not knowledgeable of the fact that their explicit pictures or videos are captured without their permission.

Revenge Porn and Cyberbullying: What is more, partners can easily use these explicit images to blackmail the other person during a quarrel or after a break up. Cyber sexual abuse, or specifically revenge pornography, which involves sharing of intimate revealing material without the consent of the pictured individual, has been on the rise and Snapchat was not exempt. In a world that splashes information in the online database of a particular user, distribution of such content entails drastic personal, emotional, and even lawful repercussions.

Unsolicited Content and Harassment: The person actively using snapchat shares their ‘handle’ on other social media platforms and can be easily bombarded with explicit content from the others, become an object of harassment or even blackmailing. Where common incidents turn into aggressive ‘convos’, some people receive threats of blackmail if they do not share the material.

Legal Implications: Sexting for and with minors in particular is considered a crime in many places around the world. Teens who are in love with SnapChat in particular run a very dangerous risk especially when two people are doing sexting and one fails to know the age of the other. Such laws as those regulating sale and use of material containing obscene material are stringent and this is considered a criminal offence that includes child pornography.

Privacy and Personal Safety

If you choose to use Snapchat for any form of communication, especially something as sensitive as sexting, it’s important to take steps to protect yourself:

Keep Your Username Private: Do not post your Snapchat username in comment feeds; do not boast about it on social networks either. Disable the add functionality and do not reveal the username to anyone who you don’t trust.

Know Who You’re Talking To: That way one will be sure that the person on the other end of the computer is the person you’re talking to and more importantly if the conversation entails such content then you will be very sure that the person is of legal age. To avoid catfishing, scams, or even legal cases of any sorts, protect yourself.

Think Before You Share: It is very important to bear in mind that while the messages appearing in the app disappear, they are not completely safe. The basic rules of the internet that highlight how what we share, if it could be saved, would be okay if it were leaked.

Enable Privacy Settings: Snapchat provides different options to regulate with whom you can be revealed as receiving snaps, with whom you can be revealed as VL7; seeing your story or with whom sharing your location. Here, utilise these to reduce your interaction with people you do not recognize or wish to meet.

Stay Informed About Legal Risks: Knowledge of legal repercussions of making provocative information available especially to children can prevent awful events from happening. They are legal but differ by country; one must be very careful not to do anything that might be unlawful.

Conclusion

While using Snapchat as a relatively “temporary” mode of communication it is by no means safe to engage in sexting. Within screenshots and harassment, sending intimate material on the program is associated with a great deal of risks. Members of this fast growing platform should be very careful on issues concerning privacy and security as they are in the world of technology.

Its been a tough few months for dating in general, whilst people have been sat at home the dating apps have been buzzing as boredom set in as people were sat at home twiddling their fingers and thumbs.

The whole point of using dating apps is to find someone online, click with them, flirt with them, invite them for a coffee, then a meal, then the cinema and bingo you have found the love of your life and you both walk off into the sunset. However Corona has set about ruining all that for our singletons.

In March 2020 pretty much in every country around the world we were all locked down. So banned were the Coffee Meets, and the cinema visits, banned were the romantic trips to a restaurant !!! All closed and stay at home was the command from our leaders.

Sexting and Flirting were the order of the day, most singletons took to dating apps to find people to message and not meet. We had a world full of frustrated horny single people desperate to find and meet their chosen online dates. Some people however made giant leaps and took huge risks, which may have paid off heres why.

A young couple in the USA met online in March time and by the time they were ready to meet lockdowns had already happened. Despite the rules these two after nights of flirting and texting each other decided that moving in was their only options and a COVID romance started.

On coming out of lockdown the covid couple decided they were in love and actually married on July 18th.

What a fantastic story, as millions of horny singles simply sexted and messaged their potentials, Jordan and Tyler got right down to it and sealed the covid deal – Congratulations to them both.