Several new features have been introduced by Snap Inc. to protect the online activities of 13- to 17-year-olds on the Snapchat app. According to the social media platform, these updates, which will launch in the upcoming weeks, have been created to accomplish the following goals: strengthen the removal of accounts that may be seeking to promote age-inappropriate material with the introduction of a new strike system and cutting-edge identification technologies. Protect teenagers from unsolicited interaction with unfamiliar people.Safe contactSnap, to ensure that teens interact exclusively with those they know in real life, like friends, family members, or trusted individuals, introduces the new enhancements.Snap now also offers a new feature that triggers a warning when someone attempts to add a teen as a friend without sharing mutual contacts or an existing contact in their phone book. Teens are urged by this warning to think carefully about whether they want to interact with this individual and to refrain from doing so if they dont trust them.Stronger ProtectionsSnap recently introduced putting more requirements on 13 to 17-year-olds to appear in search results by having a larger number of mutual friends. Teens should be less likely to become friends with those who are not currently on their social network.Snaps new strike systemSnapchat has rolled out a new Strike System to fight the marketing of age-inappropriate content through open content platforms. With the use of this system, offensive content that has been proactively spotted or reported is swiftly taken down. Accounts that attempt to circumvent the rules repeatedly will be banned.Uthara Ganesh, the Head of Public Policy-South Asia, Snap Inc., Spoke on the new features, saying, “Our latest features are thoughtful in-app features that are designed to empower teens to make smarter choices and talk openly about staying safe online.”(Image credit: Unsplash)
