The public has just received the news of reports that some 200,000 private photos shared through Snapchat were stolen and then leaked this week. This comes shortly after the scandal that involved the hacking of celebrities' private accounts and the releasing of their nude photos.

The Internet message board 4chan is once again the portal where the photos were being posted and shared since Thursday, according to LAist. Based on the news reports the photos that were stolen came from underage users of Snapchat. It seems that more than half of the users of the photo-sharing app are between the ages of 13 and 17. If these photos fall in the pornographic category and the Snapchat users possess and distribute them, they could face some prison time.

A spokeswoman from the company said that Snapchat was not compromised. The company is saying that the hackers got the photos via third-party apps used in Snapchat, which could save Snapchats covertly without the knowledge of the sender. The rumor, which is still unverified, is that Snapsave was the application that was hacked in this latest hacking incident. Snapchat also sent out an email explaining that the company expressly tells their users to avoid using third-party apps, as this could potentially compromise their accounts. The spokeswoman said that this warning is included in their Terms of Use.

A notification is usually sent by Snapchat to the sender if a screenshot of the photo is made by the recipient. However, if the photo recipient is using a third-party app, saving the photo can be done by the recipient secretly.

The latest hacking, called "The Snappening," has flooded 4chan with about 13 gigabytes of photos allegedly from Snapchat. The photo exchange service, which is based in Venice, automatically deletes the videos and photos after they have been viewed if these were sent through their own system. However, some third-party apps have the capability to store these images and videos. Snapsave had already issued a statement that their service was not compromised. SnapSaved.com on the other hand, which is also a suspect, does not exist anymore as a picture-saving service for Snapchat. It instead redirects to another website. The entire hacked photo collection is supposed to be posted this Sunday, according to 4chan users. It is expected that a huge amount of photographs in the collection will be child pornography.