Snapchat users could be breaking the law…

Most don’t even realise they are doing anything wrong

It is that serious, even the government have got involved and released a warning!

Millions of people use Snapchat to send images and video clips which disappear after a set amount of time.

If you take screenshots of Snapchat picture messages and pass them on to others without consent this could land you in hot water, it could even lead to you being sued!

Government minister Ed Vaizey said ”Under UK copyright law, it would be unlawful for a Snapchat user to copy an image and make it available to the public without the consent of the image owner. The image owner would be able to sue anyone who does this for copyright infringement. The Snapchat privacy policy states that if Snapchat is able to detect that a recipient has taken a screenshot of an image, they will try to inform the original poster. However, Snapchat advises users to avoid sending messages which they would not want to be saved or shared.”

Talking about sexual images, Vaizey said ”The disclosure of private sexual photographs or films without the consent of an individual who appears in them and with intent to cause that individual distress, is an offence under Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Those convicted could face a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The maximum sentence for copyright infringement is 10 years in prison and/or an ‘unlimited’ fine.”

A Snapchat spokesman said: “Under UK copyright law, it’d be unlawful for any user of any social media platform to take another person’s image and republish it to the public – this doesn’t just apply to Snapchat. The Parliamentary question quoted by The Independent makes it clear that The Criminal Justice and Courts Act protects people from the sharing of private sexual content, with a potential maximum jail sentence of 2 years. Again – this applies to all communications services, not just Snapchat.”

Will this change the way you use Snapchat?