Snapchat Parental Controls: Protect minors and Safer Social Media Usage

Discover how to set up and utilize Snapchat Parental Controls to create a safer online experience for your child. Enable settings for friend requests, gps tracking, and content filters. Stay informed and foster open communication. Safeguard your child with Snapchat Parental Controls.

Snapchat is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, with more users than Twitter, Pinterest, or Linkedin, especially among younger users. 

Snapchat is popular because of its unique features, like disappearing messages and fun filters, which are popular amongst teenagers and young adults. It offers a dynamic and interactive way to connect with friends and celebrities.

However, as a parent or a caretaker of teens, it is essential that you must ensure that your child is safe while using Snapchat or other social media apps. That’s where parental controls come in. 

The comprehensive guide below from our technical and software head, Parvinder, will walk you through step-by-step instructions for setting up and using Snapchat’s parental controls, making it easy for parents and guardians to create a safer online environment for their children.

1. Understanding Snapchat

Before We dive deep into parental control settings and their usage, let’s familiarize ourselves with Snapchat, and we will later introduce you to the various benefits of parental control settings. 

In simple words, Snapchat is a multimedia messaging and private video-calling app that allows friends and families to send photos and videos that disappear shortly. 

Snapchat has many intuitive and attractive features, but we also love some built-in features, Stories, and Discover, which have made it immensely popular among teenagers.

 However, there is no denying that the social media platform specially targeted towards teens also presents various potential risks, including cyberbullying and exposure to inappropriate content.

2. Importance of Snapchat Parental Controls

As technology experts, we know that parental controls play a vital role in safeguarding your child’s online experience. We always recommend parents use parental controls and kid-friendly browsers and install porn-blocking apps to block inappropriate content completely.

That’s why we have created several guides on parental controls, including recommending the best parental controls for iPhone and setting up parental settings on iPhone, Safari browser, Disney Plus service, enabling parental control on Chromebook, youtube account, and Samsung phones. 

By implementing these controls, you can establish boundaries, promote responsible behavior, and protect your child from potential harm. 

Having open conversations about social media usage and setting appropriate restrictions can create a safer and more favorable environment for your child on Snapchat.

3. Using Snapchat Family Center settings as Parents

You can easily enable parental controls on Snapchat. To get started, you’ll need to open the Snapchat app on your phone, add your child’s Snapchat account, and link it to your account as the parent. 

Follow the below steps:

1. Open the Snapchat app and click on your profile picture in the top left corner.
2. Tap on the Settings icon “⚙️” in the top right corner.
   
   
   
3. Scroll down to “Privacy Controls” and tap “Family Centre.”
4. Now search the Kid’s Snapchat account and send the invitation to join Family Centre as shown in the below screenshot.
   
   

By doing so, you can access and manage your child’s Snapchat account effectively. Snapchat Family Centre offers various control settings to Parents, including friend requests, a list of existing friend lists, family location tracking, and Discover content filters. Parents can also see to which friends their kid has sent photos, videos, and messages. 

Note: Snapchat doesn’t allow parents to see the content of their kid’s conversations with their friends.

4. Step by step instructions for Snapchat privacy settings

A. Limit Contact to Friends

Parents whose kid is below 18 years can manage this setting. We recommend you set the “Contact Me” settings to Friends or Friends and Contacts.

Step 1 – Tap your profile photo in the top left corner and tap the gear icon ⚙️ in the top-right corner.

Step 2 – Scroll to the “Privacy Controls”  settings and choose Contact Me. Select between Friends and Friends and Contacts. 

B. Manage chat settings

Parents can set custom chat settings for each of their child’s friends. 

1. Go to the friend’s profile and tap on the three dots (…).
2. A new Chat setting menu will open, and turn on or off chat features according to your preference.
3.  You can also set chat deletion after viewing or after 24 hours.

C. Limit who can view your Story

Parents can limit their child’s Story reach to these options by selecting Everyone, My friends, or creating a customized list.

1. Tap on your Profile Photo, then tap the gear icon ⚙️ in the top right corner.
   
   
   
2. Scroll down to “Privacy Controls” and select “View My Story.”
3. Choose who can view your Story.
   
   

 D. Turn off Location sharing and Geo tagging on Snapchat

Parents can enable Snapchat’s ghost mode on their child’s account to hide their location to keep them safe.

1. Tap on your Profile picture in the top left corner, then tap the gear icon ⚙️ in the top right corner.
   
   
   
2.  Scroll down to “Privacy controls” and tap “See My Location.” Turn on the “Ghost mode” to hide your location.
   
   

Conclusion

As parents and caretakers, we guide and protect our children from various safety threats in their online endeavors. 

Snapchat’s parental settings combined with parental apps like Bark, Qustodio, AT&T, Verizon smart family, and Famisafe offer a valuable toolset to create a safer social media experience for your child. 

By understanding and using parental control features regularly, setting up appropriate controls, and maintaining open communication, parents and caretakers can empower their children to navigate the platform responsibly.