The teens will also get to see if their parents see them via
Snapchat. The new feature, called 'Family Center', has been rolled out in the
US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with other countries to follow
soon.
The 'Family Center' feature will let parents and guardians
see their kids' friends list on Snapchat and also the accounts they have been
communicating with within the past week. The feature will allow parents to
directly report suspicious accounts on the instant-messaging platform.
"Family Center is designed to reflect the way that
parents engage with their teens in the real world, where parents usually know
who their teens are friends with and when they are hanging out -- but don't
eavesdrop on their private conversations," the company said in a
statement.
Parents can invite their teens to join ‘Family Center’ on
Snapchat, and once the teens consent, parents will be able to view their kids’
friends list and who they have messaged on the app in the past seven days.
Snap’s new tools follow a similar move by Instagram, which
launched its 'Family Center' in March, allowing parents to view what accounts
their teens follow and how much time they spend on the app.
Unlike Instagram's 'Family Center,' Snapchat's tool will not
allow parents to set time limits for kids to use the app or how long they have
been active on the platform.
Furthermore, Snap said it plans to launch additional
features in the coming months, including notifications to parents when their
teen reports abuse from a user on the platform.
Prior to ‘Family Center’, the tech giant already had some
teen protection policies in place. By default, profiles for Snapchat users
under 18 are private, and they only show up as a suggested friend in search
results when they have friends in common with another user. Users must be at
least 13 years old to sign up.
0 comments:
Post a Comment