About huskie_snaps

Legal and academic repercussions can occur for those posting illegal content on Snapchat group huskie_snaps.

Snapchat is an app that allows viewers to see a picture or video for up to 10 seconds.

The account, which has more than 10,000 views, allows primarily NIU students to send photos or videos directly to the page. After submission, the content is filtered by the anonymous owner of the account and posted on the page.

Viewers can watch huskie_snaps content for 24 hours before it is automatically deleted from the account’s Snapchat story.

Subscribe

Anyone with a Snapchat profile can subscribe to huskie_snaps by searching its name in the Snapchat search bar.

Content

Some of the snaps include graphic content as they show people having sex, using cocaine, weed and ecstacy and being drunk.

But, not all snaps are inappropriate. Students submit posts from occurrences on campus, in apartments, residence halls and in their cars. People also post snaps of puppies, selfies, friends playing harmless pranks and from NIU events like club hockey games.

Legality

“If I were to post a picture of myself with a bag of cocaine, police may have probable cause to arrest me for cocaine if drugs were in my possession,” said Marc Falkoff, associate professor of law and director of faculty development. “There is nothing illegal about posting things to the Internet unless the postings are criminal.”

Sending photos and videos shown on the huskie_snaps page could result in police investigation, depending on the snap’s severity.

“It would be challenging for the police to find out the identity of the person sending the message,” said Cmdr. John Petragallo. “I’m not going to say it cannot be done, but it would be difficult. But, the person sending the message would be held accountable.”

Students should assume their videos and photos are being surveyed by the police, Petragallo said.

“The biggest point to make is that it is being monitored …,” Petragallo said. “Let’s say you send a pic to someone you don’t like and it’s causing emotional distress, there’s a section of cyber stalking that [the sender] can be charged with.”

NIU’s take on huskie_snaps

The Student Code of Conduct policies are applicable to student conduct on- and off-campus.

“All students at NIU are subject to the Student Code of Conduct and the Student Code of Conduct does provide behavioral guidelines with regards to illegal and illicit activity,” said NIU spokesman Paul Palian. “Thus, those violating the Student Code of Conduct would be subject to the remedies prescribed within that document.”

Palian said huskie_snaps is not unique to NIU.

“I was reading an article in TIME magazine that NYU had a similar issue, and we had this with Myspace in the ’90s,” Palian said. “So, it’s the latest thing, but policy-wise the actions that are described are covered by the Office of Community Standards and Student Conduct … .”

Go to bit.ly/1wgiC0X to read the Student Code of Conduct.