Just two days after settling a lawsuit that accused Snapchat of causing social media addiction and mental health issues, Snap has announced new parental controls. Parents and guardians can now use Snapchat’s Family Center tool to see how much time their teen is spending on the platform and get additional details about new friends they add.
With these features, Snap is likely looking to address concerns from regulators and parents about safety and screen time. Parents can now view the average amount of time their teen spent on Snapchat each day over the previous week. They can also see how that time breaks down across different parts of the app, including chatting, snapping, creating with the camera, using Snap Map, or watching content on Spotlight and Stories.
While Family Center already allowed parents to see a full list of their teen’s friends, they can now see how their teen likely knows a new user they’ve added. For example, parents will be able to see if they have mutual friends, are saved as a contact, or belong to shared communities.
Snap stated that these trust signals make it easier for parents to understand new connections and have greater confidence their teen is chatting with someone they know in real life. If a parent sees an unfamiliar new friend, they have the information needed to start a productive conversation.
Snap launched Family Center in 2022 as a suite of parental monitoring tools in response to regulatory pressure over social media companies’ failure to protect minors. Since then, Snap has added features, including the ability to see who teens have recently interacted with, set time restrictions, and block access to the My AI chatbot.
The new features follow Snap’s recent settlement of a lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old who accused the company and other social media giants of designing algorithms and features that fueled addiction and harmed mental health. The lawsuit also names Meta, YouTube, and TikTok, but no settlements have been reached with these companies. The remaining case against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube is set to proceed with jury selection beginning next.
Snap remains a defendant in other social media addiction cases. According to documents disclosed in ongoing cases, Snap employees raised concerns about risks to teens’ mental health as far back as nine years ago. The company has said those examples were cherry-picked and taken out of context.