Snapchat Rolls Out New Security Measures to Protect Teenagers and Group from On-line Scams

Immediately, Snap Inc. is rolling out some cool new options to maintain the Snapchat group protected from on-line risks like sextortion and bullying. They’re beefing up their instruments with higher in-chat warnings, stronger good friend protections, simpler location-sharing, and improved blocking. All these adjustments are to ensure Snapchat stays a spot the place real-life connections thrive.

Ben Au, the general public coverage lead for Australia and New Zealand at Snap Inc., emphasised that maintaining Australians, particularly teenagers, protected, personal, and nicely is a prime precedence for the corporate.

“Snapchat is constructed in another way than different social media platforms. It’s all about connecting with real-life mates, and we’re continually working to make it extra enjoyable and protected. As new on-line threats pop up, we’re dedicated to discovering methods to guard our group, particularly younger Australians.”

These new options are a part of Snap’s ongoing efforts to make it laborious for strangers to seek out and make contact with teenagers on the app and to fight the rising challenge of on-line sextortion in Australia.

“We’ve put loads of effort into combating sextortion on Snapchat. We’ve designed the app so it doesn’t present public good friend lists, stopping these schemes.

Teenagers can’t get messages from individuals they haven’t added as mates or don’t have of their telephone contacts.

Plus, we maintain educating our customers with sources like our in-app Security Snapshot on monetary sextortion and our Privateness & Security Hub,” Ben continued.

“Our newest safeguards are all about selling actual connections, serving to younger individuals make sensible decisions, and ensuring each Snapchatter feels protected and assured.”

Right here’s what’s new:

Expanded In-App Warnings

Final November, Snapchat began exhibiting pop-up warnings when a teen received a message from somebody they didn’t share mutual mates with or have of their contacts.

This warned them of potential dangers and reminded them to attach solely with trusted individuals. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Snapchatters have taken motion, resulting in over 12 million blocks.

Now, Snapchat is increasing these warnings to incorporate new and superior indicators.

Teenagers will get a warning in the event that they obtain a chat from somebody who has been blocked or reported by others, or from a area outdoors their typical community – indicators that the particular person is likely to be a scammer.

Enhanced Friending Protections

At the moment, teenagers aren’t urged in Fast Add or Search except they’ve a number of mutual connections. Snapchat is now including extra friending safeguards. Together with the expanded in-app warnings, it’s turning into a lot more durable for strangers to seek out and add teenagers.

Snapchat will cease good friend requests from being delivered in the event that they’re from somebody the teenager doesn’t share mutual mates with and who has a historical past of utilizing Snapchat in scam-prone areas. This is applicable whether or not the request is distributed by a teen or to a teen.

Blocking Enhancements

Snapchat has all the time had instruments to simply block somebody. However generally, dangerous actors make new accounts to maintain harassing those that’ve blocked them.

To deal with this, Snapchat is upgrading its blocking instruments. Now, blocking somebody will even block new good friend requests from another accounts made on the identical machine.

Simplified Location-Sharing and Extra Reminders

Snapchatters, together with teenagers, get common reminders to verify their safety and privateness settings and share their location solely with mates.

Now, Snapchat is sending these reminders extra usually to make sure customers know precisely who can see their location on Snap Map. They’re additionally making location-sharing less complicated, so it’s simpler to manage which mates see your location.

Location sharing on Snap Map is off by default, so customers must opt-in to share the place they’re. And you may solely share your location along with your Snapchat mates, not with the entire group.

These new instruments are simply the newest steps in Snap’s ongoing mission to maintain teenagers protected on Snapchat.