Disruptions: Indiscreet Photos, Glimpsed Then Gone

By NICK BILTON

Snapchat allows people to take and send a picture, then control how long it is visible by the person who receives it.

People once took photographs so they could capture a moment for themselves and keep it forever. Then digital cameras and cellphones turned photos into something more ephemeral and more easily shared. But as the case of Anthony Weiner demonstrated, photos that are shared but are not meant to last, sometimes stick around.

Why Parents Lie to Let Kids Join Facebook

By PEGGY ORENSTEIN

It’s been clear for a while that parents lie about their children’s ages so they can join Facebook. A survey by Consumer Reports published in June found that there were 7.5 million users under age 13 (the site’s threshold for membership); more than 5 million were under 10. Over the year leading up to the report, a million children said they were harassed or threatened on the site.

But cyberbullying is not why kids are supposed to stay away. The legal reason for the age limit is to protect children’s privacy. Facebook collects personal data from its users — lots of it. The site’s whole purpose is to erode the concept of privacy, to make public everything about you, not only for the benefit of your 622 BFFs, but to customize your advertising or use your endorsement of a product (through the “like” button) to sell it to a friend.