Snapchat gives parents new insights into the screen time their teens and friends spend

Two days after settling a lawsuit accusing Snapchat of causing social media addiction and mental health problems, Snapchat announced it will introduce new parental controls. Parents and guardians can now use Snapchat’s Family Hub tool to see how much time their teen is spending on the platform, as well as additional details about the new friends they’re adding.

With these new features, Snap will likely look to appease regulators and parents over concerns about safety and screen time on its platform.

Parents can now see the average time their teen spent on Snapchat each day during the previous week. They can see how that time is split across different parts of the app, including chatting, snapping, creating with the camera, using Snap Map, or watching content on Spotlight and Stories.

While Family Center already allowed parents to see a full list of their teen’s friends on Snapchat, they can now see how their teen is likely to know a new user they’ve added as a friend. For example, parents will be able to see if they have mutual friends, are saved as a contact, or belong to shared communities.

“These trust signals make it easier for parents to understand new connections and have more confidence that their teen is talking to someone they know in real life,” Snap wrote in a blog post. “If a parent or guardian sees a new friend they don’t know, it means they have the information they need to start a productive conversation.”

Snap launched Family Center in 2022 — a suite of parental monitoring tools — in response to regulatory pressure over social media companies’ failure to protect minors on their apps. Since then, Snap has built the tool with additional features, including the ability to see who people have recently interacted with, set time limits, and block access to the app’s My AI chatbot.

The new features come as Snap earlier this week settled a lawsuit brought by a 19-year-old identified in court documents as KGM, who accused the company and other social media giants of designing algorithms and features that fuel addiction and harm users’ mental health.

The lawsuit also names other platforms, including Meta, YouTube and TikTok, but no settlements have been reached with those companies. The remaining case against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube is scheduled to continue with jury selection starting next.

Snap remains accused in other social media addiction cases. According to documents unsealed in the ongoing cases, Snap employees raised concerns about risks to teens’ mental health as early as nine years ago. The company said the examples were “carefully selected” and taken out of context.