Snapchat is a communications service for people ages 13 and up. It’s designed differently from social media.
On Snapchat, teens can take photos and videos, decorate them with text and pictures, and then send these Snaps to friends. Text message Chats can also be shared.
Snaps aren't saved like in regular messaging apps - instead they are, by default, designed to automatically disappear after they have been viewed.
Helpful to know! Snaps and Chats may delete by default, but just like with anything shared online, someone can screen-grab what’s on a computer or phone screen without consent.
Rangatahi tend to use Snapchat in a way similar to how parents might use text messaging or phone calls to stay in touch with friends and whānau.
Click the Play button for a video intro to the Snapchat app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EzTJ1RiwyA
Privacy
Snapchat accounts give you control over your information and a range of tools to limit and change who can view your content or contact you. Key safety and privacy settings for teens default to the strictest standards. For more details, see Snapchat’s Privacy Centre.
Use of data
Snapchat uses the information collected to provide users with personalised products and Services. For more details, see Snapchat’s Data Use Table.
THE APP AND HOW IT WORKS
Snapchat features
Camera
Use the Snapchat camera feature to access your phone's camera and take photos or videos to share as Snaps. Decorate your Snaps with filters, lenses, stickers and text.
Chat
Share text message Chats. Make voice or video calls.
Map
See Snaps of events from across the world. Share your location with friends/whānau and see where they are and what's going on around them. Change your settings to choose who can see your location.
Mute other people on Maps so you don’t see their location.
Spotlight
Watch a public curated and moderated feed of content. Submit and watch short entertaining videos.
Stories
Save your favourite Snaps to your Story. These Snaps stay on Snapchat for 24 hours. Public visibility of your Story can be controlled through Settings. Memories is a private collection of your Snaps and Stories.
Discover
Explore a feed of content from select publishers and creators. Your teen can subscribe to
Safety Snapshot, for online safety tips.
Heads Up, for anti-drug awareness.
Here For You, for mental health resources.
My AI
Parents can turn off teen access to My AI in Family Centre. Question the chatbot. Generate your own images. Use My AI responsibly. Note that AI-generated images are watermarked with the Sparkles logo.
When do Snaps ‘disappear’?
Conversations on Snapchat delete by default to reflect real-life conversations.
Most messages sent over Snapchat will be automatically deleted once they’ve been viewed or have expired. Snapchat’s servers are designed to automatically delete all one-on-one and Group Chat Snaps after they’ve been viewed by all recipients.
There are some exceptions:
You or your friend can save favourite Snaps or Chats to Memories by tapping and holding ones you want to save.
Snaps saved to your Story will stay there for 24 hours.
In one-to-one conversations, you can change settings to: delete Snaps 24 hours after viewing. never delete Snaps.
Unopened Snaps:
sent to a Group Chat, are automatically deleted after 7 days. sent one-on-one, are automatically deleted after 31 days.
Snaps that are submitted to Snap Map and other Public Stories may be viewable in Search for different amounts of time — some for only a day or two, while others can be viewed for much longer.
Data is retained for review when there is a report of harmful content. This may include referring an incident to the Police.
Safeguards for teens
Snapchat offers extra protections for rangatahi to help keep the focus on connecting with close friends, preventing unwanted contact from strangers, and providing an age-appropriate content experience.
Click the Play button for a video intro to Snapchat’s safeguards for teens.
https://www youtube com/watch?v=thlD-cwTrHE
Key safeguards
Snapchat doesn't allow teens to communicate one-to-one with another person unless they are friends on Snapchat or an existing contact in their phone.
Snapchat make it difficult for strangers to find teens on Snapchat by not allowing them to show up in search results unless they have several mutual friends or are existing phone contacts.
Auckland, NZ
You and Luiza don’t have many mutual friends - do you know them? Check before you start chatting.
Snapchat sends teens an in-app warning if someone tries to contact them who:
they don't share a mutual friend with. has been blocked or reported by others. is from a region where the teen’s network isn't typically located.
Community Guidelines
Read the full Community Guidelines.
Age restrictions
You must be at least 13 years old to create a Snapchat account. It’s recommended that teens aged 13-17 years have permission from a parent or carer to use the app.
Snapchat Etiquette
Be kind and respectful to other Snapchatters. Be thoughtful about what you Snap, and don’t send people anything they wouldn’t want to receive.
Safer use of Snapchat
The Snapchat Community Guidelines prohibit illegal and potentially harmful content and behaviour such as sexual exploitation, pornography, selling of illicit drugs, violence, self-harm and misinformation. Snapchat applies additional moderation to their public content platforms, Discover and Spotlight, to prevent content that violates the rules from reaching a large audience.
Enforcement of Community Guidelines
To enforce against violations of our Community Guidelines and avoid any potential dangers, Snapchat uses both proactive detection tools and reports from Snapchatters, parents and law enforcement.
Snap has a 24/7 global Trust & Safety team that investigates these reports and in most cases, they take action within an hour in order to enforce Snapchat's safety standards. This can include: warning users, removing content, banning an account, and escalating a report to law enforcement.
Family Centre
Family Centre is an in-app tool to help parents and carers to see who their teens are communicating with on Snapchat and set Content Controls - which can help prompt important conversations about safety.
Parents must be aged 25+ years to use Family Centre. Teens must be aged between 13-17 years.
Set up Family Centre
1.
Create your own personal Snapchat account, if you don’t already have one.
Click the Play button for a video tutorial to download the app and set up Family Centre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcUATXoLyzQ
2. Send your teen a Friend invite. They must accept this invite so you are confirmed as friends before you can continue the process.
3. Send your teen an invite to join Family Centre. They must accept this invite, so remind them to respond before it deletes.
Use Content Controls to restrict your teen s access to sensitive content in the Stories and Spotlight tabs.
Disable your teen’s access to My AI.
More questions? Check out the Snapchat Parent hub.
