Snapchat introduces Family Center for teens
Snapchat is rolling out its first parental controls as social media platforms are facing increasing scrutiny for exposing young users to potentially harmful content.
Despite the rise of TikTok, Snapchat and its disappearing messages remain popular with teens with an estimated 46 million monthly activate users in the United States.
Snap's parent company, Snap, said in a blog post that the company is introducing Family Center for parents to gain better visibility into how their teens use the social networking app.
The Family Center is designed to reflect the way parents engage with their teens in the real world, where parents usually know who their teens are friends with and when they hang out, but don't eavesdrop on their private conversations, the blog post said.
Parents or guardians must install the Snapchat app on their own device in order to link their account to their teens through an invitation process.
Parents will be able to see which accounts the teen has been talking about on the app over the past seven days, but will not be able to see the contents of those messages once set-up. They will be able to view the teen's friend list and report potential abuse to Snap's Trust Safety team for review.
Parents, guardians, or trusted relatives over 25 can invite their family members to join the Family Center, according to a video introducing the feature. Only Snapchat users between the ages of 13 -- 18 are able to join a parent's Family Center.
The update follows the launch of similar parental control features across social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Social media companies have prioritized introducing parental controls to comply with the UK's Digital Services Act DSA. The act prohibits advertising targeting children and prohibits the promotion of content that could be harmful for minors, such as videos related to eating disorders or self-harm.
In the US, a Senate committee approved the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act and the Kids Online Safety Act, which would limit the data that tech companies can collect on minors and allow them to be more easily deleted.
In the fall, Snapchat will add additional features to the Family Center, including content controls for parents and the ability for teens to notify their parents when they report an account or piece of content.