According to the Snapchat Terms of Service, no one under the age of 13 is allowed to use the app. That said, it's extremely easy for kids to get around this rule when they sign up and many younger children are using the app.
Is Snapchat safe for preteens and teens? Most kids use Snapchat to goof around and stay in contact with their friends—end of story. Yes, there's some mature content, but it's appropriate for most teens 16 and up.
Children and young people could be at risk of viewing harmful or upsetting video content and images. Snapchat Map shares your location with other users on the app. Your child could receive unwanted contact from adults or other young people using the app.
Age 13 is the minimum age to sign up for Snapchat. This Snapchat age requirement is lower than the minimum age of apps like Instagram, which require users to be 16+. There's a higher Snapchat age requirement of 18 to use certain features, like payments or attaching one's name to a global Spotlight video.
TikTok has different rules for different ages: Users under age 13 can't post videos or comment, and content is curated for a younger audience. For kids age 13 to 15, accounts are private by default. Only friends can comment on videos, and other users can't duet (explained below) with your videos.
Snapchat is restricted to users over the age of 13. If children under the age of 13 sign up for an account they are given access to 'SnapKidz' which is a limited version of Snapchat that doesn't allow images to be sent to other devices.
The newest feature is an in-app tool called Family Center that allows parents to oversee their children's accounts. The home area of the Family Center displays three options: view the child's friends, see who they've messaged in the past week and report abuse or safety concerns.
There's a TikTok alternative for younger kids
A “younger user” section of the app allows kids under 13 in on some of the fun. Younger kids can only access videos that have been curated by TikTok's algorithm for a younger audience, and there are even more limitations when it comes to the videos they create.
To keep your children safe from online dangers lurking in the Snapchat app, you must enable parental controls on the app. Snapchat offers built-in parental control features that give your child control over who can get to see what they share on the app and who can contact them.
What is the ideal age for a first phone? Your children could be ready for a smartphone or similar device anywhere from 10 to 14, or during middle school. A sixth-grader (typically 10 to 11 years old) could be a good start for considering a phone or a wearable.
Snapchat, like many social media apps, does list an age requirement in its terms of service stating that no one younger than 13 years old should have an account. Statistics show that over 290 million people use Snapchat daily, and a lot of them are tweens and teens, despite the app's age limit.
At what age should a child be allowed to be on TikTok? Jean Twenge, our nation's leading researcher on how social media impacts child and adolescent development, recommends that no child under 13 should be on any social media, including TikTok. And I would add that many 13-year-olds aren't ready.
Parents should consider whether children are mature enough to navigate explicit content and whether they know how to think about the potential impact of what they post. That said, when used responsibly, Snapchat can be a positive outlet for older kids to explore their creativity and connect with friends.
Snapchat launches parental controls to help manage teens' social media use Snapchat's Family Center lets parents see whom their teen is contacting, but not their messages. Parents can also confidentially report accounts that concern them, without their child's knowledge.
Photo provided by Snap, Inc. Snapchat released a new parental control tool in its app called Family Center that gives parents a way to monitor who their kids are communicating with on the social media platform.
Your teen must be at least 13 years of age (or 14 in South Korea and Indonesia) to use TikTok. We're committed to providing an age-appropriate experience, so it's important that your teen provides their real date of birth. For example, we don't allow younger people on TikTok to use certain features.
The app has an age-rating of 13+. Users can browse different videos on TikTok via a personalised feed known as the 'For You Page'. You can also search for content using topics or hashtags.
That means that technically, nine-year-olds shouldn't be using SnapChat at all. There is an alternative app for younger children called SnapKidz, which allows younger users to take photos, draw on them, and create captions, but it doesn't allow the user to send or receive photos.
Snapchat allows users can send time-limited photos that might be embarrassing or just silly without a significant fear that an image will find its way to other social media sites where it might live forever. With Snapchat, teens have a way to interact that feels authentic and fun.
3Snapchat Parental Monitoring App for iPhone
Another popular means of monitoring Snapchat is using the Hoverwatch app. This app is a suitable option for the parent to monitor Snapchat on their kid's iPhones. You can use it to monitor up to five Snapchat accounts simultaneously.
Instagram requires everyone to be at least 13 years old before they can create an account (in some jurisdictions, this age limit may be higher).
The reason your parents might not want you to have Snapchat is because of the stories from media outlets such as MTV and Buzzfeed. Your parents might be worried about inappropriate content showing up on these stories. Promise to not watch these stories if you get Snapchat.
Moreover, Instagram also allows you to restrict profiles and to select people so that they can not see your stories. Now, the question- which is safer, Snapchat or Instagram, can be confidently answered that Snapchat is much more secure and private for texting.
Is Snapchat a safe app? Generally, it is. However, if you use it without caution and add friends with any judgment, you may put yourself into a dangerous environment and let your privacy leak. All in all, whether an app is safe to use is mostly depends on yourself.