Snapchat Updates Family Center With Deeper Parental Monitoring Tools

Messaging apps can expose younger users to risks, and platforms now push harder to improve safety tools. While WhatsApp works on parental controls, Snapchat has rolled out expanded features designed to give parents clearer insight into teen activity.

Family Center gets detailed screen time insights

According to TechCrunch, Snapchat has introduced new parental insights within its Family Center. Parents and guardians can now see the average daily screen time their teen spent on Snapchat over the past week.

The update also delivers a detailed usage breakdown. Parents can view how much time teens spend chatting, snapping, using Snap Map, watching Stories or Spotlight, or creating content with the in-app camera.

Family Center already showed a teen’s full friends list. Snapchat has now added more context by explaining how a new friend likely connects to the teen, such as through mutual friends, saved contacts, or shared communities.

These changes follow Snapchat’s recent settlement tied to social media addiction and teen mental health concerns. The timing points to a stronger effort to address safety expectations and mounting regulatory pressure.

Family Center has existed since 2022, but this update adds more practical tools that help parents understand real usage patterns instead of just contact lists.

Other tech companies have also stepped up efforts to protect minors online, as Roblox has rolled out facial age verification for chat worldwide. OpenAI has also taken steps to protect underage users from sensitive topics and has introduced predictive safeguards in ChatGPT.