Home / News / Viral & Trending New Snapchat safety tool lets parents see who their kids are talking to AlesiaKan/Shutterstock The new safety features "allow parents to see who's in their teen's universe." By Cassandra Stone August 9, 2022 AlesiaKan/Shutterstock Rectangle Inside this article Why is Snapchat so popular with kids? How old do you have to be to use Snapchat? Why does Snapchat need Family Center? Snapchat is rolling out a new in-app safety feature called Family Center that will allow parents to see who their kids are talking to and report any accounts that might be concerning. As one of the most popular social media apps for tweens and teens, this new Snapchat safety tool enables parents to monitor their kids’ connections without inhibiting their autonomy and how they use the app. Family Center requires that both the parents/caregivers and the teen to opt into its features. Snapchat is unveiling new parental tools this morn. Parents and teens 13-18 both have to opt in. Parents then see who their child has been communicating with but not what the teen is saying. Snapchat exec says it’s analogous to the real world. More @todayshow at 8 pic.twitter.com/W2wetCxF8x— Kate Snow (@tvkatesnow) August 9, 2022 Earlier this year, Instagram launched its own Family Center safety portal. While Instagram allows parents to set time limits and gives them the ability to see how long their child has been “active,” Snapchat’s Family Center will not offer parents that level of control. (Though both iOS and Android systems have time limitation tools anyone can use for any app.) Related: A new parent’s ultimate guide to social media “It allows parents to see who’s in their teen’s universe,” Nona Farahnik, director of platform policy for Snap, tells NPR. “It offers parents the ability to ask who someone might be, how they might know a contact, which prompts those kids of real-time conversations about who teens are talking to.” Why is Snapchat so popular with kids? Well, for starters, it’s because they can communicate with their friends and keep up on being trendy—and parents aren’t really on the app in ways kids might consider a “buzzkill.” The allure of disappearing messages is a huge reason why people of all ages use the app. Messages within the platform disappear after 24 hours. Related: What age should a kid get a phone? *This* is the ideal age, according to a new poll How old do you have to be to use Snapchat? According to the terms of service, users must be 13. You have to enter your birth date to set up an account, but there’s no age verification—which means it’s easy for kids under 13 to sign up if they have access to a tablet or a phone. Common Sense Media rates Snapchat OK for teens 16 and up, mainly because of the exposure to age-inappropriate content and the shady way the app can collect data. Why does Snapchat need Family Center? Because it’s easy to add friends in the app, which means it’s easy to wind up with a lot of strangers as “friends.” And because the app can collect data pretty easily, the app can learn all about users’ habits both inside and outside of the app. Snapchat also shares data with several third-party sites. While parents can’t see the content their teen is sending or receiving on Snapchat, they can view who their kids have communicated with during the past seven days. This way, parents are “in the know” about who their kids are talking to, and kids can still send their short-lived messages without fear of their parents knowing what they say. Related: How you use social media may be associated with your parenting style According to a Snapchat blog post: “Family Center is designed to reflect the way that parents engage with their teens in the real world, where parents usually know who their teens are friends with and when they are hanging out — but don’t eavesdrop on their private conversations.” Inside this article Why is Snapchat so popular with kids? How old do you have to be to use Snapchat? Why does Snapchat need Family Center? The latest Viral & Trending Pennsylvania school board cancels gay actor’s speaking appearance due to his ‘lifestyle’ Celebrity News Hilary Duff says she’s ‘no longer responding’ to messages asking when her baby is coming Viral & Trending Mom’s parody about dance recital inflation will have you laughing (and crying) Celebrity News David Beckham fangirls over Spice Girls reunion at his wife’s 50th bday and it’s EVERYTHING