Snapchat Is Missing Critical Suicide Prevention Features

So why hasn’t Snapchat created better reporting tools? One argument: As opposed to Facebook or Twitter, where you’re probably connected to hundreds of people you don’t often speak to, Snapchat is more intimate — you use it with your friends, and if you see something that concerns you, you likely know how to reach out to that person directly. Its users only interact with the people they want to interact with, in other words, which has no doubt contributed to the service’s meteoric rise.

Put another way, you wouldn’t expect the telephone company to take responsibility if you had a disturbing phone call with someone. Besides, Snapchat says it doesn’t even save “Snap” data, and a major appeal of the platform is that its messages disappear after a short amount of time. 

Don’t forget that Snapchat has a somewhat more “permanent” element called “Stories,” though. Here, users can post photo or video messages that last for an entire day. Many people use the feature as a sort of public diary, and the stories are viewable by any of a user’s friends, if not everyone who follows that user. 

And that’s where you might see something from an individual you don’t know but still think is worth reporting — a bit of content that wasn’t meant for you necessarily that’s nonetheless worrisome.

Snapchat could learn a thing or two from Facebook’s updated self-harm features, especially since the app has played a role in young suicides before.