Snapchat is taking significant steps to enhance the safety of its teenage users by making it harder for them to be contacted by strangers. This move aims to combat the growing problem of sextortion, a type of scam that exploits young users for sexual and financial gain.
The platform announced a set of new safety measures designed to protect teens from potential online harms. These features include:
- Expanded Warning Pop-Ups: Teens will receive warnings when they get messages from users who are not mutual friends or in their contacts. Additional warnings will be triggered if the message comes from someone who has been blocked or reported by others, or is from a region where the teen’s other contacts are not located. These are indicators that the person may be a scammer.
- Friend Request Restrictions: Snapchat will now block friend requests from accounts that teens do not share mutual friends with, especially if those accounts are from regions known for scam activity.
Snapchat is also improving its blocking tools. When a user blocks another account, any new accounts created on the same device will also be automatically blocked. This prevents blocked users from creating new accounts to continue harassment.
Furthermore, Snapchat will provide more frequent reminders about location settings on its “Snap Map” feature. Users can update their location settings, remove their location from the map, and customize which friends can see their location – all in one place on the app.These updates build on Snapchat’s existing teen safety features, such as the “Family Center,” which allows parents to monitor the activity of users aged 13 to 17, and mechanisms for removing age-inappropriate content
The company’s initiative follows similar efforts by other social media platforms. In April, Meta introduced features to combat sextortion, including alerts for users who interacted with known scammers. Social media leaders, including the CEOs of Meta and Snap, testified earlier this year in a Senate subcommittee hearing about protecting young people from online exploitation.
These new safety measures are a crucial step towards protecting teenagers from online predators and maintaining the trust that users place in social media platforms.
