Ready for the new Snapchat? So are we!

Snapchat users joined together to fight the onslaught of sexually suggestive images and stories.

Do you like to use Snapchat's fun filters and read their featured stories? So do kids of all ages, which has quite a few parents concerned with the app's sexually suggestive and downright inappropriate content.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - A petition created by Malissa Richardson called #NoThanksSnapchat calls for the popular app company to change its setting options.

Richardson wanted the option for users to opt out of seeing sexually explicit featured stories and images on the "Stories" and "Discover" pages.

The response was immediate.

Over 26,000 people signed the petition calling for an end to the sexualization of what was meant to be a child-friendly app.

In the app store, under Snapchat's Information tab, it clearly says the app is rated 12+ for the following:

• Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug use References
• Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
• Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
• Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity

Interestingly, it also has family sharing.

With something new under sexual, rated mature and suggestive themes posted each day, many would argue they are anything but "Infrequent."

Several pictures featuring nude women with blurred chest and crotch regions as well as skimpy lingerie-clad pictures appear each day - another example of inappropriate content being anything but "Mild" or "Infrequent."

On the petition site, Richardson wrote: "Unfortunately, every time I go to watch the stories my friends post on Snapchat, I am bombarded with featured stories from Cosmopolitan, Daily Mail, and others ... The first ones I see, obviously very calculated in their placement, contain sexually explicit headlines and pictures that if I had the option to remove, I would."

She continued, explaining Millennials are used to customized content on other social media apps and can choose to report or remove anything they don't want on their feed, yet Snapchat is falling behind in this regard.

"I do not care to see articles about how to improve my sex life, how to lose my virginity, or what I should know about what guys like in bed. To me, that is offensive and disgusting. What frustrates even me more [sic] is that I am not the only person exposed to this pornographic material.

"I hate that my younger siblings, friends, and millions of other young people as young as 13-years-old are exposed to this content multiple times a day without the option of blocking it."

Richardson continued, explaining how many have deleted the app for exactly that reason; but rather than deleting it, she believes if enough people call for change, they can influence what younger users are exposed to.

She was right.

On Monday, January 23, Snapchat announced it will update its policies to ensure publishers can no longer post risqué images or inappropriate materials to Snapchat's Discover page.

The company explained the following guidelines will now be part of the app's new policies:

• Clarifying vague language around its restrictions on the use of nudity, profanity and violent images.
• Stating more clearly that publishers should not use overly sexualized or violent images as the initial visual that users are exposed to when they look at Discover.
• Creating a new tool that lets publishers prevent users who are under age 18 from seeing certain content.
• Reserving the right for Snapchat to gate content for users under 18, even if a publisher has chosen not to do so.

Publishers are also unable to provide links to outside sites that can be considered fake news - all content must be fact-checked and accurate.

Rachel Racusen, a spokeswoman for Snapchat, explained the changes aim to "empower our editorial partners to do their part to keep Snapchat an informative, factual and safe environment for everyone."

It's about time too, since inappropriate content is not the greatest of Snapchat's sins.

The company was sued for allowing explicit content on minors' accounts and in July, a class-action lawsuit was filed, alleging Discover intentionally exposed minors "to harmful, offensive, prurient and sexually offensive content without warning minors or their parents that they would be exposed to such explicit content."

Such content included sexualized images of Disney characters and a post from popular sex-magazine Cosmopolitan, featuring a performance artist who allowed strangers to touch her body - complete with photographs.

The suite was dismissed in November when both sides agreed to settle but Snapchat learned its lesson.

The updated guidelines may not be everything Richardson wanted but at it is definitely a step in the right direction.

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