Time to engage: How parents can help keep their children safe on Snapchat

Snapchat may only be the 10^th most popular social media platform in the world, but it estimates monthly active users at over 750 million. The platform is all the rage particularly among children and teens, and its features such as disappearing messages, stories and augmented reality (AR) filters keep kids coming back for more. In fact, many of them have been copied by larger rivals, with the newest addition being an AI chatbot dubbed “MyAI”.

Yet on the flip side of any discussion about social media is online privacy and safety. It pays to take some time to understand the possible risks, and familiarize yourself with the many features in the app itself designed to enhance the safety of more vulnerable users.

Snapchat and data

Snapchat prides itself on privacy. After all, the key differentiator for the app for many years was that “snaps” – photos or videos with captions – disappear once the recipient has viewed them (more on this later).

However, it’s also true that, as this report details, the app collects a range of personally identifiable information (PII), location and biometric data on users and shares it with third parties for analytics, product improvement and marketing. Snapchat may also collect information about a user's activity on other services that use its cookies to improve advertising.

There are also some concerns over the MyAI chatbot, as raised by UK data protection regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The app apparently uses the context of a user's MyAI conversation over time, plus their age and general location, in order to serve targeted ads.

What are the main Snapchat risks for kids?

Although disappearing messages on the one hand enhance privacy by literally removing content from the app, they can also create extra headaches. For starters, concerned parents will find it harder to monitor what their kids are up to and what they’re sharing if messages disappear after being viewed.

The psychology behind that feature may also encourage more reckless sharing of images, giving kids a false sense of security and making them believe that their images will vanish without consequences. This could play into the hands of cyberbullies and adults using the app for nefarious purposes. (Muddying the waters further, some Snapchat employees reportedly had access to those snaps in the past, and abused it to spy on users.)

Here are some other concerns parents may have with Snapchat:

Cyberbullying: It’s a problem on any social media site, just as it is in the real world. Unfortunately, less than a quarter (23%) of high school victims of cyberbullying report the abuse to an adult. And disappearing messages make it even less likely that they’ll notify a parent or teacher.
Inappropriate content: According to Snapchat, Stories and Spotlight content is moderated, but “some posts may contain images or captions that do not explicitly violate our Community Guidelines yet contain sensitive or suggestive content.” Individual Snaps may also feature images or videos that you’d rather your child wasn’t exposed to. The risk is perhaps more acute with the MyAI app which may not understand what constitutes “inappropriate”.
Grooming and sextortion: Unfortunately, there will always be a small minority on social media sites who are not there to interact with friends and family, but instead to pray on more vulnerable members of society. Adult strangers could theoretically send Snaps or messages to children, and the platform’s Snap Map feature enables kids to share their location. A report from 2023 found that as much as 26 percent of grooming offences recorded by UK police took place on Snapchat. The platform recently rolled out a variety of new features designed to help protect children on the site.
Challenges and Snapstreaks: Kids love to play and compete. And there are plenty of opportunities to do so on Snapchat. When users exchange Snaps for two consecutive days, the app will keep track of their “streak” and delete messages after 24 hours of inactivity. This could encourage addictive behavior or oversharing of personal information. A 2023 study claims that high-frequency Snapchat use is linked to FOMO, anxiety and low self-esteem.

Staying safe on Snapchat

Children don’t like to be lectured to, especially about a parent who may not even fully understand the apps they’re using. So get familiar with Snapchat, and have an honest conversation about your concerns. Set rules and boundaries for usage, and who they should and shouldn’t friend on the platform. With mutual trust hopefully comes an understanding that they’ll tell you if they receive a friend request from someone they don’t know.

Here are some other tips to keep your kids safe and happy when using the app:

Share best practice advice on how to use social media in a way that doesn’t negatively impact mental health
Ensure they sign up with the correct age, so the right settings will be applied by default
Discuss what is and what is not OK to share on the app, including personal information and appropriate content
Explore the safety features of Snapchat together. These include:
- In-app warnings which alert teens when they receive messages from people who are not mutual friends or contacts
- Enhanced blocking to prevent cyber-bullying
- Ghost mode to stop others seeing your child’s location
- Default chat functions which prevent your child messaging someone on the platform unless they’re friends
- Reporting other users (press and hold Snapchat ID, select ‘More’ and ‘Report’)
- Various privacy settings to limit who can see your child’s profile and contact them
Visit the platform’s Family Center to learn about a range of tools and resources that should give you an overview of your child’s activity on Snapchat. The tools will also enable you to report any concerns to the app’s Trust and Safety team.
Set up a Snapchat account and link it to your child’s to view who they’re friends with and have contacted in the past week (although not the content of messages).