Credit: Snapchat
Snapchat has expanded its Family Centre feature giving parents greater insight into the specific ways their teens use the platform.
The company launched the Family Centre tool in 2022.
New features include daily screen time and more detail on new social connections.
The social media platform is standing by its "privacy-first" stance, ensuring parents can see who and how their teens are engaging without accessing the private content of their messages.
The new insights allow guardians to see the average time spent on the app daily over the previous week.
The data is categorised by feature. Parents can see how that time is split between: chatting and snapping with friends, creating content with the camera, exploring the Snap Map, consuming content via Spotlight and Stories.
"These insights are intended to help parents and carers better understand their teens’ digital habits and support more informed conversations about screen time and online behaviour," said the company.
The update also provides insight into new friend additions. While parents could previously see a friends list, they will now see contextual detail about new connections, such as whether the duo shares mutual friends, if the person is already saved in the teen’s phone contacts, which shared communities (like schools or locations) they both belong to.
Snapchat said this feature is designed to help parents "feel more confident about new connections and better understand how their teen knows the people they are communicating with."
Along with the recent updates parents still have the ability to set content restrictions and report concerning accounts, disable access to My AI and the upcoming AI-powered search engine Perplexity and share live locations as a family group.
Snapchat is included in the social media ban for under 16's which came into effect December 10.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.