Snap Map - IMPORTANT INFO
A "Stalker's Paradise"?
With Snapchat's latest update, the app has introduced "Snap Map" - this new feature allows Snapchat users to see each others location whilst using the app...
What are the risks?
The potential risks for children using Snapchat are obvious - with stalking and identifying a child's location chief among them. In particular when we know how many children have strangers as their friends and how young some Snapchat users are!
According to thousands of children we have surveyed in partnership with schools, around 1 in 3 primary school children as young as 8 have strangers as friends on social media - the rate is about 2 in 3 for secondary school children!
Snapchat users can essentially track a "friend's" location as long as they are using the app - which we know for many children is semi-permanent...
Please take this preventive action together with your child(ren) today:
Open The Snapchat app
Pinch-zoom the screen to reveal "Snap Map"
If this is the first time you are opening Snap Map after Snapchat has been updated, you will see the following screen - select either "Ghost Mode" (highly recommended) or "Select Friends" - and be very specific about who your child selects! - Remember: these select friends will be able to see your child's location.
If your child has used Snap Map previously, you will see the below screen instead - select the cog-wheel icon on the top right of the screen to enter settings - be sure to select Ghost Mode "ON" (highly recommended) or "Select Friends" - and be very specific about who your child selects! - Remember: these select friends will be able to see your child's location.
