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Snapchat has announced new features for its parental oversight tool, Snapchat Family Center, to address some concerns about the safety of young users on the app. The new features include the option to block the myAI chatbot, a highly personalized computer chatbot that was launched in April, and the ability to view the teens’ safety and privacy settings.
Snapchat Family Center: Blocking the myAI chatbot
The myAI chatbot is a tool that allows users to chat with an artificial intelligence that learns from their messages and adapts to their personality and preferences. The chatbot was introduced in April but soon faced criticism from parents who worried about the potential harm of having their children converse with a computer program.
Snapchat said that the chatbot already had “protections against inappropriate or harmful responses, temporary usage restrictions if Snapchatters repeatedly misuse the service, and age consideration by default.” However, to give parents more control, the app will now let them disable the chatbot for their teens. If the chatbot is turned off, the teens can still message it, but they will only receive a note that it has been disabled.
Viewing the safety and privacy settings
Another new feature of the Snapchat Family Center is the visibility into the teens’ safety and privacy settings. Parents can now see who their teens share their Stories posts with, who can contact them on the app, and whether they share their location on the live “Snap Map” feature. This will help parents monitor their teen’s online activity and ensure they are not exposed to unwanted or harmful content or contacts.
The Snapchat Family Center is a tool that lets parents supervise the behavior of 13- to 17-year-old users on Snapchat. It was launched in 2022 amid growing concerns about the safety of young users on social media platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and others. A federal judge in November ruled that Snap, along with Google, Meta, and TikTok, must face a lawsuit alleging that their services addicted teen users and caused other mental health harms.
Snapchat has been rolling out various youth safety measures since the launch of the Snapchat Family Center, such as a “strike system” for accounts promoting content inappropriate for teens in its Stories and Spotlight sections, where users can share content publicly on the app.
Snapchat said that the Snapchat Family Center reflects the dynamics of real-world relationships between parents and teens, where parents have insight into who their teens are spending time with, while still respecting their privacy. The app also said that it is making the Snapchat Family Center easier to find, by adding it to the settings section, or by allowing users to search for relevant terms such as “safety,” “family,” or “parent.”
The announcement of the new features comes ahead of a Senate subcommittee hearing later this month, where Snap CEO Evan Spiegel will testify about youth safety on social media, along with executives from Meta, TikTok, X, and Discord.
How does Snapchat protect young users from harmful content?
Snapchat has taken several steps to protect young users from harmful content and to provide them with more control over their online experience. Some of these steps are:
- Protections against unwanted contact: Snapchat has a feature called “Safety Center” that lets parents set up filters and restrictions for their teens’ messages, such as blocking certain words, numbers, or contacts. Parents can also review and approve or block any friend requests from strangers or people they don’t know well.
- Zero tolerance for severe harms: Snapchat has a zero-tolerance policy for severe harms, such as sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, self-harm, or suicide. If Snapchat detects any of these behaviors on its platform, it will remove the content and report it to law enforcement.
- Age-appropriate content for Snapchat teens: Snapchat has a feature called “Content Advisor” that helps teens find age-appropriate content on the app. The feature uses artificial intelligence to analyze the content and suggest similar ones that are suitable for teens.
- Strong default settings for teens: Snapchat has a feature called “Privacy Dashboard” that lets teens customize their privacy settings on the app. Teens can choose who can see their stories, who can contact them, who can tag them in photos or videos, and whether they want to share their location on the live “Snap Map” feature.
These are some of the steps Snapchat has taken to protect young people from harmful content on its platform.
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