Snapchat to Let Parents Decide Whether Their Teens Can Use the App’s AI Chatbot

Snapchat has introduced a new feature allowing parents to decide whether their teenagers can engage with the app’s “My AI” chatbot, addressing concerns about the tool’s safety for young users. The update in parental oversight tools, part of the broader Family Center additions, enables parents to block their teens from interacting with the My AI chatbot. If parents choose to disable the tool, teens can still send messages to My AI, but the chatbot will respond with a note indicating that it has been turned off.

This move follows the launch of My AI in April, which raised questions among parents about the appropriateness of their children conversing with a highly personalized computer chatbot. Snapchat emphasizes that My AI already incorporates safeguards against inappropriate responses, temporary usage restrictions for misuse, and age-awareness.

Additionally, Snapchat is enhancing Family Center with features that provide parents with visibility into their teens’ safety and privacy settings. Parents can now monitor who their child shares Stories posts with, manage contact accessibility, and track whether their child is sharing their location through the live “Snap Map” feature.

These updates are part of ongoing efforts by Snapchat to address concerns about the safety of young users on social media platforms. A federal judge recently ruled that Snapchat, along with Google, Meta, and TikTok, must face a lawsuit alleging harm to teen users, rejecting dismissal attempts on First Amendment grounds and invoking Section 230.

Snapchat’s Family Center, introduced in 2022, enables parents to supervise the behavior of 13- to 17-year-old users, reflecting real-world dynamics between parents and teens. The platform continues to implement youth safety measures, including a “strike system” for accounts promoting inappropriate content for teens in its Stories and Spotlight sections.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is set to appear at a Senate subcommittee hearing on youth safety in social media later this month, joining executives from Meta, TikTok, X, and Discord.