SnapChat Parental Controls
Parent's Guide to Making SnapChat Safe for Teens
Monitor messages your teen is getting on SnapChat and set up effective parental controls.
Snapchat is a popular messaging app that teens use to send disappearing messages to each other or discover short videos shared by other Snapchat users (similar to TikTok). As a proactive parent, you should know how to ensure your teen is using this app in a safe way because there are quite a few risks. We'll show you exactly how to monitor Snapchat and restrict harmful features to ensure your child can use SnapChat more safely.
Why SnapChat can be a Risk for your Teen
For parents, Snapchat's ephemeral and temporary nature can be concerning, but the ease of access to all kinds of content can be equally unsafe for Teens. Here are the features parents should be aware of if their Teen uses Snapchat:
- Private Messaging: Messages are automatically deleted after being viewed, making it easy for a user to send your child images or videos secretly.
- Public Sharing and Discovery: Teens can share videos on to a public feed so that other Snapchat users can discover their accounts. This can create an opportunity for them to connect with strangers.
- TikTok-style Video Feed SnapChat provides access to an endless content feed similar to TikTok. Your Teen can see short-form, TikTok-style videos from outside their friend group. This video feed can contain inappropriate content and endless feeds of short-form content can be harmful to mental health.
Snapchat has also come under fire for being a risky app for teens. We recommend looking up related news stories to see some of the clear risks posed by the platform. However, there are some ways to mitigate these risks by following our recommendations.
Disappearing Messages can Make Monitoring Difficult
The most important feature parents should know about Snapchat is that Snaps (and Chats) disappear after being viewed. For example, by default, viewing a message means that it will be removed soon.
We'll show you a few parental control techniques you can use to monitor Snapchat messages, so that strangers who attempt to chat with your child know that a parent will see their interactions and that your child has accountability when they use private messaging apps.
User Accounts aren't always Linked to Real Identies
Snapchat users can make their own username handle and not use their first and last name or even show a picture of themselves.
As a parent, even if you have access to your teen's Snapchat contact list, it may not be obvious if there's a contact that you should be concerned about. Fortunately, social media monitoring apps can help you determine if there's a contact that you should be concerned about.
Teen's can Discover Content via a Public Video Feed
Snapchat is similar to TikTok in that there's a public video feed where your teen can discover content from other users, who may not be teens within their friend group.
There is some risk that your teen could find obviously explicit content this way. Using parental controls, you can enforce an explict content filter to minimize discovering inappropriate content. You can combine this with screen monitoring tools to help your child browse responsibly.
SnapChat provides a built-in AI Chat Companion
Teens can chat with their own personal AI chatbot, which we consider to be a serious risk. The risks of AI chatbots on Teen health and safety have been getting more mainstream attention .
Fortunately, you can disable the AI chatbot using parental controls so that this feature isn't available to your teen (more on this later on).
Setting Up SnapChat Family Center for Best Results
To get started, we recommend setting up Snapchat's Family Center . This allows you to control some of the features your child has access to, limit explicit content, and see who your teen is interacting with while using the app. It doesn't let you monitor Snapchat messages - you'll need to combine Family Center with a screen accountability app that periodically captures screenshots of Snapchat activity.
Set up Family Center like this:
How to Review Your Teen's Activity on SnapChat
We recommend checking in with your Teen's activity regularly. Once your Teen is added to your Family Group, here's what you can do:
Monitor what your Teen Sees on SnapChat
Parents using Snapchat's parental controls are only able to see their Teen's Snapchat contacts and can't see private messages without using third-party parental control apps.
View Who your Teen is Messaging
Snapchat's built-in parental controls let you see a few basic things:
- Who your teen is friends with
- Who has messaged your teen
View how much time your Teen spends on Snapchat
If your Teen is using an iPhone, use Apple Family and Screen Time to monitor time spent on the Snapchat app. If you've already set this up for your Teen, then go to Settings > Family > [your Teen's name] > Screen Time to view app usage on your own iPhone.
If your child is using an Android smartphone, use Google Family Link to view app screen time for the Snapchat app. If you've already set up parental controls on an Android smartphone for your Teen, open the Family Link app on your device and choose your Teen's name to view how much they've spent using Snapchat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Teen Opt out of Family Center?
Snapchat's parental control system is designed to be voluntary for both the Teen and the parent, so a lot of the features offered here are ultimately opt-in for your Teen. You may need to consider third-party monitoring apps as a more in-depth alternative.
Does SnapChat's explicit content filter work for Private Chats?
Snapchat's built-in explicit content filter applies to the public video discovery feed to hide obvious explicit videos and images.
However, Snapchat has made it clear that private messages are not moderated or scanned for explicit content, so it's unlikely that explicit content will be filtered out if it is sent directly to your teen. This means that a user could add a teen as a friend and potentially send inappropriate content without the explicit content filter.
Furthermore, there's plenty of content on Snapchat that wouldn't be classified as overtly explicit, but you might not be comfortable with your teen seeing.