As part of its commitment to ensuring children are well protected, the American multimedia platform, Snapchat is currently working on a family center feature to allow parents to view their children’s activities on the app.
The upcoming family center feature is still under development, as such the name has not been officially announced, but according to the firm the new features will offer more visibility to the parents in terms of who their teenage children are chatting with and what their privacy settings are.
The family engagement offering will include an information center as well as tools to help parents keep their kids safe. This function is being developed in response to US lawmakers’ demands that social media firms offer to safeguard children on their platforms.
According to the firm, it reaches up to 90% of 13 to 24-year-olds in the United States and is expanding globally, including in India.
In India, Snapchat saw a 150 percent increase in daily active users in 2021 compared to the previous year and has been growing at a triple-digit rate for five quarters in a row. It has also amassed a user base of 60 million in the country.
The new parental controls tool would be led by Jacqueline Beauchere, the business’s new global head of Platform Safety, who just joined the company from Microsoft, where she was the chief online safety officer.
Evan Spiegel, the CEO of the American social media platforms, outlined how the new Family Center feature will work as a platform for family involvement in an interview with WSJ Tech Live, he said:
“I think the entire way this service is constructed really promotes a safe experience regardless of what age you are, but we never market our service to people under the age of 13,”
Spiegel further explained that: “We haven’t announced the name of this product yet, but we basically have a family center so that young people and their parents can use Snapchat together.”
“I think that at least helps start a conversation between young people and their parents about what they’re experiencing on our service.” Spiegel added.
