"Messaging apps"—which bring all the computing power of AIM to your smartphone—are so very in right now. The problem is, most of them don't make any money. But what if your buddy list were filled with advertisers? That's the plan.

This guest post originally appeared on Symantec.com. A few weeks after our blog post about porn and secret admirer spam targeting Snapchat users, a new spam campaign using sexually suggestive photos and compromised custom URLs is circulating on the photo messaging app.

#Followateen is not just a hashtag, it's a business model. Kik, one of the apps competing to be your backchannel of choice, has ridden "teen interest" to 100 million users. According to CNET, "Youth in the Western world are gravitating" to the app because you don't have to give a phone number.