Snapchat is launching features to help parents track their teens’ screen time and new friends on the platform
With these features, Snap hopes to ease concerns from both regulators and parents about safety and screen time. Now, parents can check how much time their teens spent on Snapchat each day over the last week. They will see how this time is used for chatting, snapping photos, using Snap Map, or watching Stories.
Family Center already let parents see their teen’s friends list. Now, parents can understand how their teen knows a new friend they added. For instance, parents can see if they share mutual friends, have saved each other as contacts, or belong to the same groups.
Snap said these trust signals help parents feel confident that their teens are chatting with friends they actually know in real life. If a parent sees a new friend they don’t recognize, they can start a helpful conversation about it.
Snap launched Family Center in 2022 in response to worries about how social media affects kids. Since then, they added features like viewing recent interactions, setting time limits, and blocking access to their AI chatbot.
These updates come after Snap settled a lawsuit from a 19-year-old who claimed that the company and others caused addiction habits and harmed mental health. Other platforms like Meta, YouTube, and TikTok were also named in the lawsuit, and their cases are still ongoing.
Snap is also dealing with other lawsuits about social media addiction. Some Snap employees raised alarms about teen mental health risks almost nine years ago. The company claimed the examples were taken out of context.