Snapchat has rolled out a major update to its Family Center, introducing new parental control features that allow parents and caregivers to better monitor how teens use the platform. The update adds screen time tracking, deeper visibility into new friend connections, and enhanced safety and educational resources, while maintaining Snapchat’s focus on teen privacy.
Snapchat Family Center Update
- Teen Screen Time Insights
With the latest update, parents can now view the average daily time their teen spends on Snapchat over the past week. The data is broken down by key features such as Chat, Camera, Snap Map, Spotlight, and Stories, giving parents clearer insight into whether time is spent messaging, creating content, or consuming videos. Snapchat says this feature is designed to promote healthier digital habits and informed conversations around screen time.
- More Context Around New Friends
Family Center already allowed parents to see their teen’s friends list and recently added contacts. Now, Snapchat provides additional trust signals when a teen adds a new friend. Parents can see whether the new contact shares mutual friends, is saved in the teen’s phone contacts, or belongs to shared communities. This added context helps families better understand how social connections are formed on the app.
- New Safety and Educational Tools
Snapchat has also introduced a step-by-step onboarding video to help parents and caregivers set up and use Family Center effectively. The video explains available safety tools and highlights how parents can stay informed without accessing private chats or messages. Snapchat emphasized that Family Center mirrors real-world parenting by balancing visibility with respect for teen privacy.
- Existing Parental Controls
Parents can already use Snapchat Family Center to view recent contacts, manage content restrictions, share live location within the family, and report suspicious or concerning accounts. They can also restrict access to certain features, including the My AI chatbot and, in the future, the AI-powered Perplexity search integration.
With these updates, Snapchat aims to strengthen its position as a teen-safe social media platform, giving parents more transparency while empowering teens to maintain independence and privacy online.
