Teens secretly selling nude photos on site, parents don't know it exists

It’s one of the latest ways people are making money off of social media. 

Insiders say many are selling nude photos and videos to help pay for college, but the big issue is that some of those posting are minors.

"In the Snapchat program itself, it's called a custom," said Scott Bailey, with N1 Discovery. "In the real world, it's either referred to as a private Snapchat or a premium Snapchat account."

Bailey is a digital forensic expert who monitors trends and troubles and this one keeps popping up.

If you follow someone on Snapchat, you can see what they post. Now, some are creating custom boards on Snapchat also called premium Snapchat and you have to be invited to see what is posted. Without an invite, there's no idea what is taking place on that page.

Bailey's team did some research and found one young woman posting on Snapchat an offer of 90 pictures and 30 videos for a $20 Amazon gift card. Bailey said most content creators ask to be paid with Amazon gift cards or through mobile payment apps like Venmo or PayPal.

"Anyone can set up a Vemo account," Bailey said. "You don't need to have a bank account. You don't need to have a credit card."

Many users promote their premium Snapchat accounts through other social media sites like Twitter or Tumblr.

"It's like a classified ad," Bailey said. "You can scroll though it and there will be different people offering different things."

So what can parents do? Check out your kids Snapchat score. Fairly active snapchatters have an average score of 60,000.

A really high number doesn't automatically mean something illicit is going on. But it's a red flag for parents to learn more about what's going on with their child's use of the app. 

If you have control over which apps are on your child's phone, you can block Snapchat.

Experts say there is not much parents can do except talk to your kids about this latest trend and its potential dangers.