Snapchat safety tips for parents



Snapchat is one of the most popular social media apps among kids and teens, but with a recent luring case involving an 11-year-old Mountlake Terrace girl who met a man on Snapchat, is it safe?

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which keeps records of what you post and send, Snapchat messages and pictures disappear, making it harder to monitor what your child is doing.

The good news is there are some safety settings you can employ to keep your child safe.

First, you'll need to go to settings. You can find those by tapping the gear icon on the right side of the screen. Once there, you'll want to scroll down until you see the section titled "Who Can."



There, you can manage who can contact your child, who can view their story, who can see their location and even who can add them as a friend.

Experts recommend all of these be set to "My Friends" so strangers cannot contact your child directly.

Another feature you should look at is called the "snap map." This is essentially a map that displays the user's location in real-time.



It's meant to show your friends where you are, but if you want to opt out of sharing your child's location you can activate "ghost mode." Find that feature under "See Your Location" settings.

Once ghost mode is on, your child's location is not shared, not even with friends.