SAN ANTONIO – Communicating with people from all over the world has become simple these days. Through social media platforms, we can talk with friends and family no matter where we are.
This open communication, however, makes it easier for people to take advantage of others on the internet, especially kids and teenagers.
Snapchat, a social media platform, allows users to send pictures and videos to contacts. Conversations disappear after a certain amount of time. It’s a great way to stay in touch with friends, but strangers are trying to contact teens.
“There’s nothing more important than keeping our users and particularly our teen Snapchatters safe,” said Rachel Hochhauser, head of Safety Operations Outreach at Snapchat.
Snapchat’s latest app update includes four new safety features to help keep users safe.
Those updates include the following:
- Expanded in-app warnings - Teens will now get a warning message if they get a chat from someone who has been blocked or reported from others in the area or is from a location that is outside of the teen’s normal network.
- Simplified location-sharing - This update gives reminders that let users know which friends they are sharing their location with on the Snap Map.
- Enhanced friending protections - This prevents suspicious friend requests from getting to the teen in the first place.
- Blocking improvements - This limits outreach from any new accounts created by someone who has been blocked.
“With that one block, that will prevent any associated accounts or any other accounts now or in the future from being used to continue to perpetuate that kind of bad conduct,” Hochhauser said.
On top of these new safety features, the app also deactivates any accounts that break community guidelines.
That can include the following violations:
- Sexual content
- Harassment and bullying
- Violence, harm
- Illegal activities
- Hateful content
“The more kind of severe harms, zero tolerance. You do it once, and you are removed from the platform,” Hochhauser said. “We do not want people on the platform who are either exploiting it or using it in a way that violates our guidelines for keeping our community safe and happy.”
Parents can find more resources to keep their children safe on Snapchat by clicking here.