Snapchat is a quite popular social media app among teenagers and children. It has more than 265 million daily active users all over the world. Just think about it; your child also includes on those active users who use Snapchat. If you are worried about your child’s personal life and career, then you must know Snapchat is not quite safe for children’s when it comes to privacy. So, how can you enable Snapchat parental control?
There are lots of things that you should do if you want to keep your child safe on Snapchat without telling them to stop using it. One can be from adding only a limited number of people/friends that your child knows on Snapchat. Other can be protecting your child’s credentials or personal information within the Snapchat app. Other than this, you can also follow other lots of methods to start parental control on Snapchat.
So, how can you monitor your child’s activity on Snapchat and prevent them from dragging into abusive, illegal, adult things? Make sure to read the complete article.
Shall we start?
Why Do Parents Need to Monitor Their Child on Snapchat?
It is essential for parents to know about their kid behavior. Where they are heading, what they are doing on their mobile, and which apps they are addicted to. When it comes to the Snapchat, most of the teenager and kids are engaged with it all the time. If your Kid is also one of them, then you must monitor your child on Snapchat from time to time.
Snapchat is considered as a fun social media app where you can chat with your friends and meet new people. Saying this, anyone can add your Kid on Snapchat by randomly searching their name. It can be a person just like your Kid as well as an adult one. They can disturb your child by sending unwanted or unnecessary messages that contain adult stuff such as pornography, nudity, or other harmful content for children.
Moreover, your Kid also may be in such a group on which they never should belong to. It can drag your Kid into a dark habit or place. Snapchat also does have a Snapmap where they can view your child’s current location. We find that many Snapchatters age below 16 are abusive and harassed because of visible location on Snapmap.
Snapchat is also not so good with its privacy and protection. There has been many data leaks and breach of users on Snapchat. So, your child’s personal picture might be leaked on the internet if they don’t concern about their privacy.
If you don’t monitor your child’s behavior on Snapchat, they may be talking with strangers whom they even don’t know. It’s all about you to stop your child’s Snapchat addition and make them safe on that Platform. Your Kid doesn’t know all about this because they just only want to have fun. So, it’s your responsibility to monitor your Kid’s act on Snapchat as well as other similar platforms.
How to Enable Snapchat Parental Control?
If you think your child is not safe on Snapchat or they are always using Snapchat all day long, then you can enable Parental control on Snapchat. This means to keep your KidKid safe on Snapchat from strangers and their personal data.
Maybe your child is getting abused but too scared to tell you about that. You can use third-party applications such as Wondershare FamiSafe to enable Snapchat parental control. But if you don’t like to control your KidKid under your roof, then you can use different methods to protect your KidKid on Snapchat. This way, both you and your child will be happy, and you don’t have to worry about them until they are not mature enough to take care of themselves.
Methods to Protect Your Child on Snapchat
There are different methods that you can implement to keep your beloved KidKid safe on Snapchat. Have a closer look!
Allow Only Friends to Contact Your Child
If your KidKid is using Snapchat from the early, that is the age below 16, but you don’t want to ruin their fun, then tell them to only add friends which they know. If your KidKid adds unknown people just to increase friend lists and streaks, then it’s not a good thing for them. In this condition, adding only their good friends is good for them. One way, they can have fun with their friends and other way, won’t get a message from strangers.
Disable Show me in Quick Add Option
Snapchat Quick add option is a feature that will show your profile on other Snapchatters account as people you might know. This is like showing a suggested friend whom you can see on Instagram and friends. So, if you turn off this feature, then Snapchat won’t show your profile as other Snapchat user’s accounts.
To disable Show Me in Quick Add, follow the following steps down below.
- Go to your Snapchat account.
- Tap on your Profile icon from the upper left corner.
- Next, tap on the Settings gear icon from the upper right corner.
- Under the Who Can.. section, tap on the See Me in Quick Add option.
- Finally, disable the Quick add option.
Allow Snapchat Notification from Friends Only
You can also teach your kid to disable notifications on Snapchat from unknown or strangers. This way, if anyone sends your child a message and disturbs them, then it remains on the Snapchat app unless your child manually opens it. Your kid can be stress-free from receiving unwanted chat messages on their mobile device.
To disable notifications on Snapchat, follow the following steps down below.
- Open the Snapchat app on your mobile.
- Go to your profile icon, which is located at the upper left corner of the screen.
- Now, tap on the Settings Gear Icon from the upper right corner.
- Under the My Account section, search and tap on the Notification option.
- There, tap on the Enable Notificationsoption.
- Now, Snapchat turns off or muted all the notifications from its app.
Select Who Can Contact Me
If you don’t want to disable notification of Snapchat but want to block strangers from contacting your kid then you can select the Who can contact Me option. This will helps your child to receive a new message only from their friends. Unknown Snapchatters cannot send your kid a chat message at any cost.
So, how do customize Who can contact me settings on Snapchat?
- Open the Snapchat app.
- Login to your account if needed.
- Tap on your profile icon from the upper left corner.
- After that, select the Settings gear icon from the right side.
- Under Who Can…, select the Contact Me option.
- Finally, select My Friends option.
From now on, only your kid friends can contact or send a message on their Snapchat.
Teach Your Child to Block Someone on Snapchat
As I already mentioned before, anyone can add and send your kid a message continuously by disturbing their peace at all. As long as it’s from one of their friends, somehow you don’t have to worry. But what if it’s from the stranger who is abusive? This can affect your child’s personal life. That’s why you can teach your kid to block someone who he/she doesn’t know on Snapchat. This will be a great step in your kid’s personal life.
So, to block someone or stranger on Snapchat, firstly,
- Go to your Snapchat account.
- Swipe right to open chat section.
- Tap on persons’ profile which you want to block.
- After that, tap on three horizontal lines from upper left tab.
- Select Block option.
- Finally, once again, tap on Block to save changes.
Enable Ghost Mode
By default, your location is visible on Snapchat unless you turned it off manually. This means anyone, including friends, can see your kid’s current location on a Snapchat map. Your kid’s private life is open to all Snapchat users. So, tell your kid to turn off the Snap map on Snapchat to prevent them from showing their exact current location.
To hide your location on Snapchat, you have to enable Ghost Mode. For that, follow the following steps down below.
- Go to your Snapahat account.
- Tap on your profile icon that is located on the upper left corner.
- After that, tap on the Settings gear icon.
- Scroll down and select the See My Location option under Who Can section.
- Under My Location section, enable Ghost Mode.
Don’t Share Your Child Phone Number
Phone number is the most important personal thing which you have to keep secret. This means don’t share your number on any online platform casually. Saying this, tell your kid to hide their phone number on Snapchat. That’s because people can misuse your child’s number, which they found on Snapchat for a criminal case. If possible, you can create a new Snapchat account without using phone number.
In case that’s not possible for your; then you can hide your beloved kid’s phone number on Snapchat. To do so, follow the following steps down below.
- Access your child Snapchat account.
- Go to their profile section from the upper left corner.
- Next, tap on the Settings gear icon from the right corner.
- Under the My Account section, select the Mobile Number option.
- Finally, unmark “Let others find me using my mobile number” option.
Teach them to Report Someone on Snapchat
If your kid finds some unusual activity on Snapchat or find inappropriate content which they don’t want to see, then they can report it to the Snapchat center. This way, your kid will not see any similar post on Snapchat.
To report someone on Snapchat, firstly,
- Open Snapchat account.
- Head to the chat section.
- Long tap on persons’ profile.
- Next, tap on the three vertical dots or more.
- Finally, tap on the Report option.
To report post on Snapchat, firstly,
- Open the post or story which you want to report.
- Next, long tap on post.
- After that, select the flag icon.
- Finally, select why do you want to report this post.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Snapchat Be Monitored by Parents?
Yes, parents can monitor their child’s Snapchat account.
Does Snapchat Have Parental Controls?
Parents can’t control their child’s Snapchat account directly from the app, but they can use other third-party applications to take control of their child’s activity on Snapchat.
Is Snapchat For Kids?
It will be better if you don’t use your Snapchat account before the age of 16.
Conclusion
Finally, Snapchat offers lots of fun stuff for teenagers, but you have to be extra careful about their personal information on Snapchat. It can be easily stolen or misused by someone for a criminal case. So, you can enable Snapchat parental control to keep your child safe and sound.
I hope this article is helpful for you. If you have any other related queries about Snapchat, then feel free to ask in the comment section.