Snapchat gives parents new insights into teens’ screen time and friends

Two days after settling a lawsuit accusing Snapchat of causing social media addiction and mental health issues, Snap announced that it’s introducing 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, along with additional details about the new friends they add.

With these new features, Snap is likely looking to appease regulators and parents over concerns about safety and screen time on its platform.

Parents can now see the average amount of time their teen spent on Snapchat each day over the previous week. They can see how this 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 on Snapchat, they can now see how their teen likely knows a new user that they’ve added as a friend. For example, parents will be able to see whether they have mutual friends, are saved as a contact, or belong to shared communities.

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

Snap launched Family Center in 2022 — a suite of parental monitoring tools — in response to regulatory pressure over social media companies’ failure to protect minors on their apps. Since then, Snap has built out the tool with additional features, including the ability to see who teens have recently interacted with, set time restrictions, and block access to the app’s My AI chatbot.

The new features come as Snap earlier this week settled a lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old identified in court documents as K.G.M., who accused the company and other social media giants of designing algorithms and features that fueled addiction and harmed users’ mental health.

The lawsuit also names other platforms, including 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 is still a defendant in other social media addiction cases. According to documents disclosed in the ongoing cases, Snap employees raised concerns about risks to teens’ mental health as far back as nine years ago. The company has said the examples were “cherry-picked” and taken out of context.