The company’s Discover section is ignored by the parental controls, for now. And parents can’t control who their teens can add as friends. Nor can parents control whether their teen’s live location can be shared on the in-app Snap Map. The Family Center, at launch, also offers no controls over if and how their teen can engage with the app’s Spotlight feature, a TikTok clone of short videos. (Though it does now tap into CSAI Matching technology to remove known abuse material.)
Snap also doesn’t allow parents to block their teens from sending photos to friends privately nor has it implemented a feature similar to Apple’s iMessage technology which automatically intervenes to warn parents when sexually explicit images are being sent in chats. And parents don’t always know the names of all their teens’ classmates and acquaintances, only those of their closer friends. With Snapchat’s new Family Center, the company is giving parents some insight into teens’ use of the app - but not enough to fully prevent abuse or exploitation, as it favors maintaining the teen’s privacy.įor parents, the ability to view a teen’s friends’ list doesn’t necessarily help them understand if those contacts are safe. Most recently, a teenage girl initiated a class-action lawsuit against Snapchat which alleges its designers have done nothing to protect against the sexual exploitation of girls using its service. Sexting has also been an issue of multiple lawsuits. It also cut off friend-finding apps that had encouraged users to share their personal information with strangers - a common avenue for child predators to reach younger, vulnerable Snapchat users. They claim that Snap’s platform helped facilitate online bullying, which has since led the company to revamp its policies and limit access to its developer tools.
As a result, Snap has been the subject of multiple lawsuits from grieving parents whose teens committed suicide. That said, parents’ concern over Snapchat isn’t limited to fears of unwanted contact between teens and potentially dangerous adults.Īt its core, Snapchat’s disappearing messages feature makes it easier for teens to engage in bullying, abuse and other inappropriate behavior, like sexting. In addition, teenage users only show up as “Suggested Friends” or in search results when they have mutual friends in common with the user on the app, which also limits their exposure. Friend lists are private and teens aren’t allowed to have public profiles. By default, teens have to be mutual friends to begin communicating - so there’s a reduced risk of them receiving unwanted messages from potential predators.
0 kommentar(er)
