The long-promised Snapchat parental controls have finally arrived, after being promised back in May. The “Family Center” tool allows parents to view who their kids are chatting with but does not let them view the content of the messages.
The new Snapchat feature comes in the face of increasing regulatory pressure on social media companies to protect children from online predators. This includes the Digital Services Act in Europe, as well as similar planned legislation in the US.
As reported by TechCrunch, The launch of the promised Family Center feature so far only offers one component.
To use the new feature, known as Family Center, parents or guardians will need to install the Snapchat app on their own device in order to link their account to their teens through an opt-in invite process.
Once configured, parents will be able to see which accounts the teen is having conversations with on the app over the past seven days, without being able to view the content of those messages. They’ll also be able to view the teen’s friend list and report potential abuse to Snap’s Trust & Safety team for review.
Parents can access the new controls either from the app’s Profile Settings or by searching for “family center” or related terms from the app’s Search feature.
