Snapchat’s new Family Centre is providing parents with monitoring tools to supervise their children’s activities on the app, without
eavesdropping their private conversations, and understand the ways in which kids
and teens are engaging across the social platform.
Speaking about the update, Snapchat announced, “In the
coming weeks, we will add a new feature that will allow parents to easily view
new friends their teens have added.”
The social company further assures parents that they will be able to report any accounts that they find concerning in relation to Snap’s Trust and Safety teams, without informing their child about them, so as to keep any potential unwanted attention away from their children.
Parents can access the Family Centre by signing up using
their own personal Snapchat account. Following that, their children will be
required to accept an invitation to join the Family Centre dashboard, as well.
While Snapchat’s deliberation towards adult supervision must
be appreciated, one could expect that the platform’s appeal could consequently go
down. This is because Snapchat is known for providing a space for users to
engage in social activities that involve more risk or even controversy, the
chances of which could be reduced as a result of parents’ monitoring.
Nevertheless, looking at how much lewdness and unsafe
activities including drug dealing and hook-up arrangements, have increased
across the platform, Family Centre is a valuable addition and could serve as an
appropriate measure for creating a balance between social engagement and safety
for younger users.
