New Safety Rules for Young Snapchat Users

Snapchat is making new rules to keep young users safe.

Young teens will only be able to share posts with their friends. This is for videos they post on Spotlight, which is like Instagram Reels.

The new rules mean that only friends can see posts from 13- to 15-year-old users. Before, these users could post without their friends knowing.

This helps keep teens safe from people they don't know. The company wants to protect them from unwanted messages.

Now, younger users will have a special space to share videos and stories with friends. Older teens can share with more people, but still have some protection.

The company says this new way is meant to help teens be creative with people they trust.

Right now, Snapchat asks users how old they are, but it's not a perfect system. Safety experts think the company needs a better way to know how old users are.

When we tested Snapchat, it said users were 18 years old by default.

If Snapchat thinks a user is under 16, it will change their settings to only share with friends. This will happen when they try to post a video.

Some groups recently did a survey of teen Snapchat users. They found that many teens have seen or gotten unsafe messages.

Many teens said they'd seen or gotten bad messages. Some of these messages were from people they didn't know.

Teens said they'd gotten unwanted messages, been bullied, or seen suggestive content. Many thought the senders were adults.

A Snapchat spokesperson said the survey doesn't show all the work the company has done to keep teens safe.

Snapchat tries to stop strangers from sending friend requests. It also warns teens when they talk to someone they don't know.

One expert said it's good that Snapchat is making changes, but there's still more work to do. The company needs to keep kids safe from adults and bad content.

The expert said Snapchat still has problems that put kids in danger. The company needs to fix these problems.

Snapchat has had problems with keeping teens safe. The company has been sued and has made some changes to help.

The company has made some changes, like new parental controls. This story has been updated with a statement from an expert.

This story is about Snapchat and keeping families safe online.

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