Snapchat Has a New Location Sharing Function for Teenagers

With the vast majority of teenagers utilizing Snapchat, the corporate is rolling out a brand new function that will assist them keep secure.

Introduced on November 14, 2024, Snapchat is launching a brand new Snap Map location sharing function in its Household Heart, the in-app hub providing parental instruments and sources.

«Analysis exhibits households are more and more utilizing location sharing as a strategy to keep secure and related,» Nona Yadegar, Director of Product Technique & Operations, tells Mother and father. «We designed Household Heart to make it simpler for folks and youths to speak concerning the selections they’re making on-line, and we’re so excited to carry location sharing into their dialog.»

The Household Heart already affords parental controls, comparable to seeing who teenagers are in communication with, viewing their privateness and security settings, and with the ability to report any considerations to the corporate’s Belief and Security group.

So, what’s the cope with the brand new location sharing function? Right here’s all the pieces mother and father must know. 

What’s Snapchat’s New Location Sharing Function?

Snapchat estimates greater than 350 million individuals use the Snap Map each month, permitting them to share their location with household and mates. The brand new Snap Map location sharing function is trying to make it simpler for folks to remain related when their children are out and about.

The Household Heart will function a button the place caregivers can ship their teen a request to share their dwell location. Mother and father will moreover be capable to extra simply share their very own location with their teenagers, too. 

Caregivers can even be capable to select as much as three areas on the Snap Map—suppose residence, faculty, or the fitness center—to maintain tabs on. They’ll obtain notifications when their teen arrives or departs from these areas.

The hope is for folks to have extra “extra peace of thoughts understanding their teen has arrived at class, left sports activities apply on time, and even returned residence after an evening with mates,” in keeping with a Snapchat press launch. 

Titania Jordan, the Chief Guardian Officer and Chief Advertising Officer of parental-control app Bark, agrees that it may be useful for folks to have the ability to observe their kids.

«Location monitoring helps mother and father relaxation somewhat simpler when their children mature and begin exploring the world, particularly as they begin driving or spending extra time away from residence,» she says. «Having the ability to open up a map and pinpoint their location could be useful in any variety of conditions, from serving to them in the event that they get a flat tire to creating positive they’re OK in a college emergency.»

One other perk to Snapchat’s updates: Mother and father will get to see who their teenagers are sharing their location with on Snap Map. The corporate says this may encourage households to have conversations with their teenagers about their sharing selections. 

These new options might be accessible over the approaching weeks. Take into account that caregivers will need to have a Snapchat account to entry Household Heart.

What Else To Know About Snapchat’s Location Sharing

Location sharing on Snapchat is all the time off by default. Which means a person wants to decide on to show it on and may choose who can view their location. The corporate says there isn’t an choice to share a location with somebody who isn’t an accepted good friend. 

The corporate will launch new security reminders for individuals who do share their areas with their Snapchat mates. The brand new in-app reminders will encourage teenagers to assessment these allowed to know their location.

Additionally, teenagers will get a pop up notification once they add a brand new good friend “who could also be outdoors their actual world community” to remind them to be extra considerate about their setting.

However there’s nonetheless the Our Story function, which permits customers to contribute to a public feed. It exhibits real-time occasions taking place at particular areas internationally.

«Most children use the Snap Map to share their actions and exact whereabouts with mates—or individuals they’ve related with on Snap that they don’t really know in actual life, so perhaps even strangers,» explains Jordan. «Customers have first rate management over how their location is shared by way of this function of the app, however issues can take a flip in the event that they’re posting to Our Story.»

She continues, «It permits customers to speak immediately inside the map in the event that they occur to be shut to one another. Customers don’t must know one another to speak—anybody can speak to anybody right here.»

It is essential for teenagers—and even mother and father—to be cautious about who sees their location as stalkers can use this function on victims. That is not only for strangers both as digital relationship abuse, together with stalking, is pretty widespread amongst teenagers, in keeping with Nationwide Kids’s Hospital.

Staying Secure on Snapchat

13 is the minimal age to make use of the favored messaging app, which launched in 2011, per Snapchat’s Phrases of Service. Whereas customers must enter their delivery date to enroll, there’s no age verification. 

This app is in style: 60% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 use Snapchat, in keeping with a 2023 Pew Analysis Heart survey.

Most of them use it to talk with mates in a manner that is much like textual content messaging. They will additionally change movies and pictures—aka snaps—with or with out filters. These are supposed to disappear after they’re seen, however screenshots could be taken.

A priority with mother and father monitoring Snapchat is that your teen has to just accept your supervision and may flip it off at any time, in keeping with Bark, the corporate aiming to guard children on-line.

«Snapchat constantly rolls out new options of their Household Heart however they’re by no means obligatory. Your child can resolve at any time, ‘I simply don’t wish to do that,’ and switch them off,» says Jordan, who believes passcode-protected parental settings could be more practical.

Caregivers can also’t see the content material their teen views, and Snapchat’s Uncover part can function content material that isn’t acceptable for youthful teenagers.

These considerations aren’t distinctive to Snapchat although; all social platforms generally is a trigger for concern for customers. It is why the U.S. Senate handed a landmark invoice to guard children on-line. Plus, Instagram just lately launched its new Teen Accounts so as to add extra security options.

Platform protections and parental controls are essential however caregivers ought to all the time have nonjudgemental and open conversations with their children about utilizing apps. That features speaking concerning the risks of interacting with strangers on-line and/or sharing areas, the truth that what’s shared on-line can final ceaselessly, and the unrealistic requirements social media creates.

It’s essential for folks to identify indicators their baby is fighting their psychological heath, which might outcome from social media use, as Emily Edlynn, PhD, an Illinois-based scientific psychologist and creator of Autonomy-Supportive Parenting: Scale back Parental Burnout and Elevate Competent, Assured Kids, beforehand advised Mother and father. 

Indicators which can warrant skilled assist can embody:

• Adjustments in sleep patterns
• Shallowness points, comparable to social comparability and frequent destructive feedback about their look
• Temper adjustments, together with anxiousness, melancholy, and/or irritability