Snap has launched Snapchat's Family Center, which introduces parental controls and account linking to the social media app.

As of August 9, 2022, the company has begun rolling out the update to users, with additional changes planned in the coming weeks. While the company has previously published guides for parents, this update brings the first parental control features to the popular app.

What Are Snapchat's New Parental Controls?

The new Family Center is aimed at the parents or guardians of teenagers. While Snapchat is open to anyone over the age of 13 years, any user under the age of 18 cannot have a public profile. Nevertheless, parents may have concerns about time spent on the app and who their teen adds to their contacts.

As a result, the Family Center aims to give parents a way to link their Snapchat accounts with their children's account(s). However, the new tools don't give unfettered control and access to teens' activity on the app. Rather, by linking accounts, parents will be able to view their teen's friends list, see who they're communicating with on the app, and report abuse.

The app emphasizes that parents will be unable to view the messages or chats of their kids.

Family Center also requires parents and teens to both connect with each other on the app. Furthermore, parents or guardians can only link their account to a user between the ages of 13 and 18 years.

In a post on Snap's website covering the new features, Snapchat said that rather than giving parents complete access, the company wants the Family Center to mimic real-life parenting.

Family Center is designed to reflect the way that parents engage with their teens in the real world, where parents usually know who their teens are friends with and when they are hanging out—but don’t eavesdrop on their private conversations.

So while they can report any accounts of concern, parents won't be able to view conversations.

However, the company also added that additional features will be introduced to the Family Center in the future. These include the ability for teens to notify their parents about their reports, as well as content controls for parents.

The app has a few other safety features available to all users. This includes features like live location sharing on Snapchat if you want someone to track a journey or see where you are.

Snapchat Takes a Sensible Approach to Parental Controls

Time will tell how Snapchat's parental controls will evolve over time. However, based on the advice of experts, it seems the company plans to maintain the privacy of teenagers using the app.

Rather than giving parents complete access to their teen's account, Snapchat wants to encourage discussions about digital safety and privacy. Which seems to be a sensible approach.