A Quick Look at Snapchat for Parents

If you’re a parent, you might have noticed Snapchat’s app isn’t exactly intuitive, and sometimes it seems like it was built as a platform for kids to get away from their parents.
Which can make it really difficult for parents to ensure their kids are safe on Snapchat.
Not to worry, we have an overview of Snapchat just for parents!
Why is Snapchat popular?
Kids prefer Snapchat to other social apps because it gives them a freedom others don’t. Pictures and videos disappear quickly, meaning they don’t feel the same pressure as other sites where the content lives forever.
Snapchat gives kids a place to be more open and goofy and themselves without feeling constantly under pressure to curate their profile.
How can Snapchat be unsafe?
However, Snapchat does have certain privacy and safety issues:
- Strangers can access your child’s location:
- Snapmap allows followers to see where your child is (at all times). It’s like a location tracker on your kids giving access to anyone who they connect with.
- Sharing settings can be set to public:
- Snapmap and other features becomes even more concerning when strangers have the ability to connect with your teen/tween.
- This gives privacy to predators looking for access to your child–just recently a stalker contacted a 7 year old over an app similar to Snapchat.
- Snap Streaks cause peer pressure stress:
- A Snap Streak represents the number of days in a row two people have shared photos of each other. There are reports of Snap Streaks being used as tools for cyberbullying and as ranking systems for friends.
- Internet photos never go away:
- This is a major concern with Snapchat: kids feeling like they can send any kind of picture because it will eventually “go away”. But images can still be screenshotted and saved. As they say, nothing ever goes away on the internet.
5 Tips for Safer Snap Experiences:
Given these concerns, here are 5 quick tips (with pictures) for good online safety on Snapchat:
- Set Snapmap to “Ghost Mode” (preferred) or “My Friends”:

- Open “Settings”–>”See My Location”, Set to “Ghost Mode” (preferred) or “My Friends”:

- Under “Settings”–>”My Story”, set to “My Friends”:

- Under “Settings”–>”Contact Me”, set to “My Friends”:

- Go to “Settings”–>”Manage”, toggle off Filters (location tracking associated with this feature):

There are a lot of places kids and parents can get tripped up when it comes to online privacy and safety, but good online security means take little steps to stay safe!
Click the link if you’d like to learn more ways to keep your family safe on social media!
