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 secure.

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

“Analysis exhibits households are more and more utilizing location sharing as a approach to keep secure and related,” Nona Yadegar, Director of Product Technique & Operations, tells Mother and father. “We designed Household Middle to make it simpler for fogeys and teenagers to speak in regards to the selections they’re making on-line, and we’re so excited to convey location sharing into their dialog.”

The Household Middle already affords parental controls, corresponding 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 take care of the brand new location sharing function? Right here’s the whole lot mother and father have to 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 buddies. The brand new Snap Map location sharing function is trying to make it simpler for fogeys to remain related when their children are out and about.

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

Caregivers will even be capable of select as much as three places on the Snap Map—suppose residence, college, or the fitness center—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 buddies,” based on a Snapchat press launch. 

Titania Jordan, the Chief Guardian Officer and Chief Advertising and marketing 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 mother and father relaxation slightly simpler when their children 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 might 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: Mother and father will get to see who their teenagers are sharing their location with on Snap Map. The corporate says this will encourage households to have conversations with their teenagers about their sharing selections. 

These new options will likely be accessible over the approaching weeks. Remember that caregivers will need to have a Snapchat account to entry Household Middle.

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 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 buddies. 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 after 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 exhibits real-time occasions taking place at particular places internationally.

“Most children use the Snap Map to share their actions and exact whereabouts with buddies—or individuals they’ve related with on Snap that they don’t really know in actual life, so possibly 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 should 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 courting abuse, together with stalking, is pretty widespread amongst teenagers, based on Nationwide Kids’s Hospital.

Staying Protected 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 should enter their delivery date to enroll, there’s no age verification. 

This app is common: 60% of teenagers ages 13 to 17 use Snapchat, based on a 2023 Pew Analysis Middle survey.

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

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

“Snapchat constantly rolls out new options of their Household Middle however they’re by no means obligatory. Your child can determine 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 is usually a trigger for concern for customers. It is why the U.S. Senate handed a landmark invoice to guard children on-line. Plus, Instagram not too long ago 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 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 ceaselessly, and the unrealistic requirements social media creates.

It’s essential 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 creator of Autonomy-Supportive Parenting: Cut back Parental Burnout and Increase Competent, Assured Kids, beforehand instructed Mother and father. 

Indicators which can warrant skilled assist can embrace:

• Adjustments in sleep patterns
• Vanity points, corresponding to social comparability and frequent destructive feedback about their look
• Temper modifications, together with anxiousness, despair, and/or irritability