Snapchat Has a New Location Sharing Function for Teenagers

With nearly all of teenagers utilizing Snapchat, the corporate is rolling out a brand new function which will assist them keep protected.

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 assets.

“Analysis reveals households are more and more utilizing location sharing as a option to keep protected and linked,” Nona Yadegar, Director of Product Technique & Operations, tells Dad and mom. “We designed Household Heart to make it simpler for fogeys and youths to speak in regards to the decisions they’re making on-line, and we’re so excited to deliver location sharing into their dialog.”

The Household Heart already provides parental controls, akin to seeing who teenagers are in communication with, viewing their privateness and security settings, and having the ability to report any issues to the corporate’s Belief and Security crew.

So, what’s the take care of the brand new location sharing function? Right here’s all the pieces dad and mom must know. 

What’s Snapchat’s New Location Sharing Function?

Snapchat estimates greater than 350 million folks 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 making an attempt to make it simpler for fogeys to remain linked when their youngsters are out and about.

The Household Heart will function a button the place caregivers can ship their teen a request to share their reside location. Dad and mom will moreover have the ability to extra simply share their very own location with their teenagers, too. 

Caregivers can even have the ability to select as much as three places on the Snap Map—suppose residence, college, or the health club—to maintain tabs on. They’ll obtain notifications when their teen arrives or departs from these places.

The hope is for fogeys to have extra “extra peace of thoughts realizing their teen has arrived at class, left sports activities apply on time, and even returned residence after an evening with mates,” in response to 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 fogeys to have the ability to observe their kids.

“Location monitoring helps dad and mom relaxation somewhat simpler when their youngsters mature and begin exploring the world, particularly as they begin driving or spending extra time away from residence,” she says. “With the ability to open up a map and pinpoint their location may be useful in any variety of conditions, from serving to them in the event that they get a flat tire to creating certain they’re OK in a faculty emergency.”

One other perk to Snapchat’s updates: Dad and mom 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 decisions. 

These new options will probably be obtainable over the approaching weeks. Remember the fact that caregivers should have a Snapchat account to entry Household Heart.

What Else To Know About Snapchat’s Location Sharing

Location sharing on Snapchat is at all times off by default. Meaning a consumer wants to decide on to show it on and might 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 many who do share their places with their Snapchat mates. The brand new in-app reminders will encourage teenagers to evaluate 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 exterior 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 reveals real-time occasions taking place at particular places internationally.

“Most youngsters use the Snap Map to share their actions and exact whereabouts with mates—or folks they’ve linked with on Snap that they don’t truly know in actual life, so possibly even strangers,” explains Jordan. “Customers have first rate management over how their location is shared by 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 throughout the map in the event that they occur to be shut to one another. Customers don’t need to know one another to speak—anybody can speak to anybody right here.”

It is vital for teenagers—and even dad and mom—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 courting abuse, together with stalking, is pretty frequent amongst teenagers, in response to 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 need to enter their delivery date to enroll, there’s no age verification. 

This app is well-liked: 60% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 use Snapchat, in response to a 2023 Pew Analysis Heart survey.

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

A priority with dad and mom monitoring Snapchat is that your teen has to just accept your supervision and might flip it off at any time, in response to Bark, the corporate aiming to guard youngsters on-line.

“Snapchat persistently 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 need to do that,’ and switch them off,” says Jordan, who believes passcode-protected parental settings can be simpler.

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

Platform protections and parental controls are vital however caregivers ought to at all times have nonjudgemental and open conversations with their youngsters about utilizing apps. That features speaking in regards to the risks of interacting with strangers on-line and/or sharing places, the truth that what’s shared on-line can final perpetually, and the unrealistic requirements social media creates.

It’s vital for fogeys to identify indicators their little one is scuffling with their psychological heath, which may outcome from social media use, as Emily Edlynn, PhD, an Illinois-based scientific psychologist and writer of Autonomy-Supportive Parenting: Cut back Parental Burnout and Elevate Competent, Assured Kids, beforehand informed Dad and mom. 

Indicators which can warrant skilled assist can embrace:

• Adjustments in sleep patterns
• Vanity points, akin to social comparability and frequent unfavorable feedback about their look
• Temper adjustments, together with nervousness, melancholy, and/or irritability