Snapchat’s New Controls Could Let Parents See Their Kids’ Friend Lists

Snapchat’s New Controls Could Let Parents See Their Kids’ Friend Lists

Snapchat is preparing to roll out enhanced parental controls that would allow parents to see who their teenagers are chatting with on the social media app, according to screenshots of the upcoming feature.


Snap’s parental controls.

Courtesy of Watchful.

Snapchat is planning to introduce Family Center, which would allow parents to see who their children are friends with on the app and who they’ve messaged within the last seven days, according to screenshots provided by Watchful, a product intelligence company. Parents would also be able help their kids report abuse or harassment.

The parental controls are still subject to change before finally launching publicly, as the Family Center screenshots—which were first reported by TechCrunch—reflect features that are still under development.

Santa Monica-based Snap and other social media giants have faced mounting criticism for not doing more to protect their younger users—some of whom have been bullied, sold deadly drugs and sexually exploited on their platforms. State attorneys general have urged Snap and Culver City-based TikTok to strengthen their parental controls, with both companies’ apps especially popular among teens.

A Snap spokesperson declined to comment on Friday. Previously, Snap representatives have told dot.LA that the company is developing tools that will provide parents with more insight into how their children are engaging on Snapchat and allow them to report troubling content. (Disclosure: Snap is an investor in dot.LA.)

Yet Snap’s approach to parental controls could still give teens some privacy, as parents wouldn’t be able to read the actual content of their kids’ conversations, according to TechCrunch. (The Family Center screenshots seen by dot.LA do not detail whether parents can see those conversations).

In addition, teenage users would first have to accept an invitation from their parents to join the in-app Family Center before those parents can begin monitoring their social media activity, TechCrunch reported.

Netflix’s Trivia Show Experiment Is Part of Its New Frontier: Video Games
Image courtesy of Netflix

When Netflix releases its new interactive show, “Trivia Quest,” on Friday, Netflix executive Andy Weil hopes that viewers will find themselves thinking about video games.

The 30-episode quiz show isn’t one of the streaming giant’s expanding roster of mobile games, but it’s easy to draw the connection. In “Trivia Quest,” viewers accumulate points and rescue kidnapped characters by correctly answering trivia questions. Users can watch the show—or “play the game,” to put it another way—on their phones and tablets, in addition to TVs and computers. Weil, Netflix’s vice president of comedy and interactive, wants the new show to bring attention to the company’s fledgling games portfolio.

“I think creating some awareness that your Netflix subscription doesn't just come with amazing television and movies—it comes with mobile games—I think would be a great byproduct of ‘Trivia Quest,’” Weil told dot. LA on Thursday.

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Christian Hetrick

Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.

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