According to what was published by Snap Inc, Snapchat has now gained a filter that protects minors from viewing sensitive and suggestive content: the filter, however, must be activated manually in the Family Center (parental control) of the platform.
Almost as a response to what happened in 2021, Snapchat has announced several new features to protect the youngest, including some related to its recent Parental Control.
It was 2021 when Snap Inc was heard in a hearing in the US Congress as some minors had been presented in the Discover feed with content for more adult people, such as sexualized video games and articles on how to try their hand at porn. There were also reports of children being recommended games classified as aimed at more mature users. The platform has since controlled Snapchat parental control in 2022, making the “Family Center” available.
Now, there’s a “Limit Sensitive Content” option that will prevent the Spotlight short video hub, Stories feed, and Discover surface from being viewed by minors as suggestive or sensitive content. In addition, the platform, after sharing everything with media partners and some creators of the Snap Stars program, has published a guidelines page that explains which content, in the various categories, will be deemed sensitive (“content that could be suitable for the recommendation, but they may be blocked by teen users based on these new controls or by others on the app based on their age, location or personal preferences“).
An example is that of sexual content within which openly allusive images, manipulated media, “insensitive or humiliating sexual content”, explicit language, non-real images such as those produced by AI, all nudity and simulations of sexual acts will be considered sensitive. even if people are dressed. Among violent contents, however, for example, self-harm, blood, animal suffering, sensationalist coverage in the representation of accidents, etc. will not be authorised.
Finally, along with content controls, Snap Inc announced it is working to give parents more control and visibility into how teenagers use the My Ai chatbot, powered by Open AI GPT technology and included in the Snapchat+ subscription. .
