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Snapchat to let parents see who their kids are chatting with in app

Snapchat to let parents see who their kids are chatting with in app
Image Credits: Snap

Snap has launched “Family Center” on Tuesday, a new supervision tool that allows guardians to see who their teens are messaging on the app without disclosing the contents of the conversation.

For this to work, both the child and the guardian must accept the “Family Center” invite. Once accepted, the guardian has access to their child’s friends list and list of accounts they have interacted with over the last seven days. They can also report any concerns they may have to Snap’s Trust and Safety Team.

Similarly to how guardians are aware who is coming over to visit their child, but not necessarily what they are talking about, Snap explains: “Our goal was to create a set of tools designed to reflect the dynamics of real-world relationships and foster collaboration and trust between parents and teens.”

The parental control features are a response to an ongoing conversation about children’s online safety in the U.S., which led to a number of legistlations including raising the age limits in federal to cover the privacy of children between the ages of 13 and 18 years old, rather than simply children under the age of 13, and restricting how tech platforms can collect and use data from young users.

In January, Snap introduced another feature limiting the number of friend suggestions that teenagers receive on the app, unless they “have a certain number of friends in common with that person.”

The “Family Center” will be rolled out over the next few weeks.

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