FRESH: #Snapchat Unveils Feature That Allows Parents Monitor Who Their Kids Are Talking To

Family Center gives parents a glimpse through the window of their teens’ online world. But the new view is a bit obstructed — parents cannot see the actual content of their kids’ conversations.

Snapchat said in a blog post announcing the tool;

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,’

Our goal is to help empower parents and teens in a way that still protects a teenager’s autonomy and privacy. We look forward to continuing to work closely with families and online safety experts to keep improving Family Centre over time.

In the past, there have been multiple instances of people grooming underage girls on Snapchat.

A number of other social media platforms have introduced tools that enable parents to see more of what their children do on their sites as part of efforts to improve safety.

In February, Facebook announced parental control features that would allow parents to see their children’s chat history on Facebook’s Messenger app.

Snapchat also confirmed that it was publishing a new range of resources to help parents and children have open conservations about online safety and that it would continue to add more features over the coming months, including new content control tools for parents.