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Snapchat in January announced that it was rolling out new parental control features for families, but as usual, these additions are merely all smoke and no substance. Let's break them down:

Updated visibility settings: Parents can view who their children are sharing stories with, their contact settings, and their SnapMap settings. And while Snap says they default underage accounts to the strictest privacy settings available, kids can change them at any time. Similarly, any parental control setting can be unilaterally turned off by the kid at any time as they're not PIN code protected.

New AI settings: Parents will now be able to restrict the ability for My AI, Snapchat's AI-powered chatbot, to respond to chats. This sounds like something important, but the real threat on Snapchat to children comes primarily from other users, not the bot.

Easier access to Family Center: They've updated their user interface to make the parental control settings easier to find. It doesn't matter how prominent they make Family Center as long as there's no PIN code to protect the settings parents put in place.

For many parents, it’s the bane of their existence. It’s the app that every kid wants and every kid seems to have before yours does. Parents are constantly asking why kids are so attracted to it and, more importantly, how to monitor Snapchat. The app came out in 2011 and has been popular ever since for its unique photo messaging and fun face filters. It’s also the first app to introduce stories to the social media scene.

But its popularity among kids has brought certain risks that have proven tricky for kids — and parents — to navigate. That’s why we put this handy guide together to give parents the low-down on everything you need to know about its features, as well as how to keep your kids safe.

For many kids, Snapchat is an essential pillar of their social life. One main reason for this is the instantaneous connection it provides kids with their peers. Whether it’s through stories or direct messages, users can easily share the happenings of their day with a text, photo, or video. Other platforms like Instagram and TikTok are more about the content, like posting edited selfies or scrolling through entertaining videos. But Snapchat serves a slightly different purpose in providing a quick and unique way to interact with your friends. This is exemplified in Snapstreaks, a feature that essentially records how many days in a row you’ve sent a Snapchat to another user.

But make no mistake, Snapchat still has lots of content to consume. Kids can find some of their favorite celebrities and influencers on Snapchat and get an inside look at their everyday lives. Just like any other social media, kids can easily find themselves scrolling through the Discover page for hours at a time.

Snapchat was the first app to introduce disappearing messages and parents have been battling the misconceptions that come with it ever since. Kids are quick to believe that since the messages disappear, they can send whatever they want without any repercussions. But the truth is that the messages are never really gone — kids have been known to screenshot, either with their own phone or with another phone to take a picture of the messages. This feature has made Snapchat a hotspot for the spread of tons of inappropriate behavior, such as cyberbullying, sexting, drug sales, predation, and more.

On the flip side, there’s still a danger even if the messages do disappear because this means there’s no record of any misbehavior that may happen on the platform. So for things like cyberbullying, you wouldn’t have the context or the evidence you need to bring to the school, for instance. The app is inherently secretive, which can cause a lot of grief for the parents, kids, and anyone else involved in a sticky situation.

The Discover page, as previously mentioned, is like Snapchat’s public feed for their more prominent users, brands, and publications. Users can find any and all types of content here. And the page runs on clickbait, which means the more shocking or eye-catching a video is, the more views it’s likely to get.

Parents should know that Snapchat’s Discover page has a high propensity for overtly sexual content and generally concerning content. Aside from this, it’s also addictive just like TikTok and other short-form video platforms.

Snapchat has a location feature where you can see where your friends are, as well as post a story to the “OurStory” feature that’s based on a location or event. For example, you can look up a school or concert and look at stories from users in that specific area. Kids could find (or be found by) strangers through this feature, which is a serious privacy concern. Sadly, we know that online predators flock to the platforms where the kids are, and this feature opens the door to kids being targeted for grooming and other predatory tactics.

When it comes to Snapchat, the best strategy a parent has is communication. Once you’ve done your own research on the app and understand its dangers, talk to your kid about what you’ve learned. Especially with the disappearing messages, it’s extremely difficult to catch all potentially inappropriate activity on the platform. However, it provides a great opportunity to teach kids about why online safety is so important and give them the tools they need if they encounter these dangers. Whether your kids already have Snapchat or they’re just asking for it, make sure they’re educated on the risks and know you’re a safe place to go, no matter what.

While Snapchat still has a long way to go in making its platform safe for kids, parents should still take advantage of what parental controls they offer. Parents can use Family Center to link their own personal Snapchat accounts with their kids to get some general insights into the child’s app activity. Additionally, there are some privacy settings that can help mitigate the risks relating to the location and messaging features.

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Snapchat 3 months ago (edited) • 6 views

If your child has a smartphone then it’s likely that they’ve installed one of the many different social networks that place photos as their primary way of communication. It seems almost unthinkable that a few years ago we weren’t all worrying about the best angle for a selfie or whether to snap a quick picture of our food to upload to Instagram before it goes cold.

A photo and video messaging app that has seen a huge surge in popularity is Snapchat. This app, which is primarily aimed at a younger audience, allows users to send videos and images to their contacts with the premise that these messages will be automatically eliminated after a few moments. Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps (as of September 2015, the range is from 1 to 10 seconds) after which Snapchat claims they will be deleted from the company’s servers.

However, the application has seen some worrying issues relating to its security. For example, just last year the credentials of 4.6 million U.S. Snapchat users, such as usernames and phone numbers, were made public on the Internet. Despite introducing a new two-step verification process to help boost the app’s security, here are a few things to keep in mind before you let your child get too snap-happy.

Even though your child might think that they are sending the picture of video to their friends, remind them that the app has been hacked in the past and that if it happens again, their images could be made public. So advise them not to send something they wouldn’t want the whole world to see.

Despite the notion that pictures sent to contacts expire automatically after a set period of time, there are various ways around this and it’s worth pointing it out to your children.

For example, users are often able to take screenshots of photos and videos which are intended to be ephemeral using standard screen capture features on their smartphone or even by using special software to save the image.

So after following the above steps, next is to ensure that a stranger can’t send your child unsuitable images or contact them. To change the settings to ensure that only their friends can send them messages, tap the ghost icon at the top of the screen to access your child’s profile, then tap the gear cog icon in the upper-right corner, under the Settings menu go to “Receive Snaps from…” and ensure that it says “My Friends” instead of “Everyone”.

Finally, if someone has been harassing your child you can delete and block them from the same section of the menu as the step above. You can also write to safety Snapchat and they will resolve the issue. If still don’t feel comfortable letting your child use the app, you can delete their account and entering the username and password.

Remember, no matter how much freedom you want to allow your children when using social media, it always pays to keep them informed of the dangers it can pose, too.

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Snapchat 3 months ago • 6 views

Haven't gotten your brand on Snapchat? The time could be right, given recent changes to the service. All you need to know on getting started.

Before diving in, it’s been well discussed that Snapchat’s user interface can be confusing to newcomers, especially older people — with “older” being like 25 or over.

After spending time with my own teenagers, I don’t think it’s that only young people “get” Snapchat. I think that it’s young people teach each other how to navigate the app when they see each other in person. My kids learned Snapchat from their friends. In turn, they pass on tips to others.

The Snapchat app has a “social UI,” if you will, one that encourages people to be social with others in real life in order to be social virtually within the app. Whether this is by accident (likely) or intentional, I don’t know. But that’s why I think oldsters like me or anyone without friends they see in person who regularly use Snapchat struggle.

Once you get that it’s not you — that Snapchat isn’t easily figured out without a little help — you may feel a bit better. I sure did.

Signing up is straightforward. You’ll need to provide your name, a birthdate and an email address or phone number. If you’re making an account for your company or brand, you’ll have to fake a birthdate. Make it so your company is aged 18 or over, so you don’t wind up classified as a child.

There’s no explicit support for business accounts. That means as a brand, you have no real protection if one person in charge of your account goes rogue. So, make sure you trust your people.

Unlike most social networks, there’s no significant profile to establish. You won’t have a bio. You won’t get a URL to your site. You can have a custom picture, but you can’t upload an image to use. You’ll have to take it live, as explained further below. Some lucky Snapchat accounts can be verified, but there’s no formal procedure for this.

You’ll also have to create a unique username, up to 15 characters long. This is different from your regular name. Pick carefully, because you can’t change your username. You can change the regular name that’s associated with it, however.

By default, your Snapcode will be empty. If you want to add your photo, tap on the ghost. A new screen will appear with the ghost image enlarged, and you can put your face within it. Tap on the camera button below the ghost to take your picture. A series of pictures will be taken, to create an animated profile picture. If you don’t like it, tap the camera button again to take another. When you’re happy, tap on the < icon to the left of the camera circle to save and return to the profile screen.

In some places, Snapchat will use a Bitmoji image rather than your ghost, if you’ve created one. To do that, select the “Create Bitmoji” icon at the top left of the profile screen. This is optional, and even if you do it, your Bitmoji image will not replace any custom image within your Snapcode.

As mentioned above, you’ll have a unique username. In my case, it’s “sullivandanny.” But you also have a regular name to make it easier for others to find and identify you. If you don’t have one or want to change it, tap on the gear icon at the top right of your profile screen. Then select the first option, “Name,” where you can set a first and last name. Use the < icon in the top left to get back to your profile screen when finished.

From there, you can tap on “Added Me” to see who has added you (and you can add them back, if you want). You don’t have to add people. By swiping across to the left on their names, you can select “Ignore” if you don’t want to see them listed any longer on your Added Me list. You can also block anyone this way, too.

Unlike other social media networks, there’s no way to see all the people who have added you. The Added Me list will only show the last 200 or so people. You won’t get an overall count nor a complete list. Nor is your Snapchat “score” — that number below your username — a count of followers. That’s simply a mystery figure that Snapchat calculates based on the number of snaps you’ve sent, received, stories posted and other factors.

The core part of Snapchat is making Snaps: pictures and videos that you’ll share with followers.

Picture- and video-taking is pretty easy. From the home screen shown earlier, tap on the big circle camera button at the bottom to take a picture. Tap and hold if you want to record a video. If you need flash, use the flash icon in the top right of the home screen. If you want to use the front-facing camera for a selfie, use the camera switch icon in the top right. If you don’t like the picture you’ve just taken, tap the X in the top left corner to start over.

After you’ve taken a picture or video, you can add effects to it. It’s not required, but it can be fun and informative. We’ll go through each of the effect options, but here’s an overview of key tools and options that appear after you’ve created your content.

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