Could a senator on Snapchat be bad news for teens?

By Nicel Jane Avellana

Jan 16, 2014 09:43 PM EST

Snapchat made history on January 15, 2014 because it is the day when adults finally realize the presence of the social network upstart, Steven Loeb of vatornews reported. More specifically, it is the day when US Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky decided to join Snapchat. Rand made the announcement on his Facebook page. Rand wrote, "Did you hear? I joined @Snapchat! For daily updates & behind-the-scenes footage follow: senatorrandpaul on the photo sharing app. I'm sending my first snap tonight."

Loeb wrote that the latest development could either make or break Snapchat. While teens may feel that having adults on the platform ruins it for them, the report writes that this could go one of two ways.

First, Snapchat could go the way of Twitter, the platform that celebrities, politicians and other public figures use to get closer to the people. The presence of the "important" people on Twitter did not ruin the social network but enhanced the service. Loeb wrote, "Say what you will about Kanye West, but his thoughts are a lot more entertaining than yours and mine."

However, a more likely possibility is that adults invading the Snapchat platform could go the way of Facebook where teenagers would most likely leave as they look for other places, away from their parents.

Loeb wrote, "Remember when the site was opened up to anyone 13 and older, and even those not on a school network, leading to an influx of adults onto the site as well? Just like that, Facebook was no longer cool. Once the network started being taken over the parents of those teenagers, the teens began fleeing to other, newer social networks. And the same exact thing could happen to Snapchat."

It has been a rough year for the young firm. They suffered a New Year's breach which compromised the usernames and passwords of 4.6 million Snapchat users. After that, a spam attack compelled the upstart to issue an apology to its users, the report said.

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