Snapchat gives parents new information on the show time of teenagers and friends

Two days later to solve a case criticizing Snapchat for causing social addiction and mental health problems, Snap announced that it is introducing new parental controls. Parents and guardians can now use Snapchat’s “Family Center” tool to see how much time their child is spending on the platform, as well as details about new friends they add.

With this new feature, Snap appears to be aiming to appease regulators and parents over security concerns and screen time on its platform.

Parents can now see how much time their child spent on Snapchat each day for the past week. They can see how this time breaks down into different parts of the app, including chatting, taking photos, creating with the camera, using Snap Maps, or watching Spotlight and News content.

While Family Center previously allowed parents to see their teen’s entire list of friends on Snapchat, they can now see how their child knows the new user they’ve added as a friend. For example, parents will be able to see if they have close friends, saved as contacts, or if they are in shared communities.

“These trust signals make it easier for parents to understand new connections and have greater confidence that their child is interacting with someone they know in real life,” Snap wrote in a blog post. If a parent or guardian sees a new friend they don’t know well, they have the information they need to start a productive conversation.”

Snap launched Family Center in 2022 – a parental monitoring tool – in response to pressure from social media companies to fail to protect children on their apps. Since then, Snap has developed an app with additional features, including the ability to see who teens have recently interacted with, set time limits, and block access to the app’s My AI chatbot.

New features come as a Snap earlier this week dismissed the case written by a 19-year-old identified in court as KGM, who accused the company and other social media giants of creating algorithms and content that encourage addiction and harm the health of users.

The lawsuit also names other platforms, including Meta, YouTube, and TikTok, but no settlement has been reached with these companies. The remaining lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube are expected to continue with the preliminary judge’s decision.

Snap is still being sued in other social media lawsuits. According to disclosure documents in ongoing lawsuits, Snap employees have complained about the dangers to the health of young people since nine years ago. The company said the samples were “selected” and not listed.