Snap Inc. has announced a package of safeguards to further protect 13-17 year old Snapchatters from potential online risks.
These safeguards, which will begin rolling out in the coming weeks, are designed to protect teens from being contacted by people they may not know in real life, provide a more age-appropriate viewing experience on the app’s content platforms and enable Snapchat to more effectively remove accounts that may be trying to market and promote age-inappropriate content through a new strike system and new detection technologies.
Snap is also releasing new resources for families, including an updated parents guide that covers the platform’s protections for teens and tools for parents, and a new YouTube explainer series.
Safer contact
Most teens use Snapchat to “chat” with their close friends using pictures and text, similar to how older generations use text messaging or phone calls. When a teen becomes friends with someone on Snapchat, the platform is focused on ensuring that it is someone they know in real-life – such as a friend, family member or other trusted person.
Building on this, Snapchat, Snapchat is launching a feature that sends a pop-up warning to a teen if they are contacted by someone they don’t share mutual friends with. This message will urge the teen to carefully consider if they want to be in contact with this user and not to connect with them if it isn’t someone they trust.
Snapchat already requires a 13-to-17-year-old to have several mutual friends in common with another user before they can show up in Search results or as a friend suggestion. The platform is raising the bar to require a greater number of friends in common based on the number of friends a Snapchatter has – with the goal of further reducing the ability for teens and strangers to connect.
New strike system
While Snapchat is most commonly used for communicating with friends, the app offers two content platforms – Stories and Spotlight – where Snapchatters can find public Stories published by vetted media organisations, verified creators, and Snapchatters. On these public content platforms, additional content moderation is applied to prevent violating content from reaching a large audience.
To help remove accounts that market and promote age inappropriate content, Snapchat recently launched a new Strike System. Under this system, inappropriate content that is reported or proactively detected is immediately removed. If the team at Snapchat sees that an account is repeatedly trying to circumvent its rules, the account will be banned.
Education about common online risks
As Snapchat continues to bolster its defences against a range of sexual risks like catfishing, financial sextortion, taking and sharing nude images, and more, the platform also aims to use its reach with young people to help them spot likely signs of this type of activity – and what to do if they encounter it.
Snapchat is also releasing new in-app content that helps explain these risks and shares important resources for Snapchatters, such as hotlines to contact for help. This content will be featured on the Stories platform, and surfaced to Snapchatters by relevant Search terms or keywords.
Several of the new product safeguards were informed by feedback from The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE). Snapchat’s new in-app educational resources were developed with The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Tony Keusgen, MD Australia and New Zealand at Snap Inc., said that creating a safe and positive experience for Snapchatters has always been a top priority for the company.
“Snapchat is designed to be different to other apps and safety is at the heart of what we do," he said.
"Our focus is on giving Aussies a fun place to communicate with real life connections and that’s why we’ve always had extra protections for teens. But we know there is no finish line when it comes to keeping our community safe.
"As a messaging platform for real friends, our goal is to help Snapchatters communicate with people they actually know, and to ensure that the content they view on our app is informative, fun and age-appropriate.”
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.