Snapchat Announces New Features To Further Protect Users Suite Of Updates Focus On Combating Sextortion And Bullying

Today, Snap Inc. is announcing new features to further safeguard the Snapchat community from online harms, including sextortion and bullying. The new suite of tools includes expanded in-chat warnings, enhanced friending protections, simplified location-sharing, and blocking improvements – all designed to reinforce the real-life connections that make Snapchat so unique.

Ben Au, Public Policy Lead ANZ, at Snap Inc., said that creating an environment that prioritises the safety, privacy, and wellbeing of Snapchatters remains a priority for the company, and in particular that of teens.

“Snapchat is designed differently to traditional social media, with a focus on helping people connect with friends they know in real life, and we’re always working to make Snapchat an even more fun – and safe – place to do just that. As new online harms continue to emerge, we’re committed to developing ways to protect our community against these risks, especially with the safety of young New Zealanders in mind.”

These expanded features add to Snap’s ongoing work to make it difficult for strangers to find and contact teens on Snapchat, and build on its commitment to combating online sextortion – a growing crime in New Zealand.

“We’ve worked diligently to fight back against sextortion across the platform, from designing the app to not display public friend lists, which can be used to facilitate sextortion schemes, to not allowing teens to be messaged by anyone they haven’t added as a friend, or don’t have in their phone contacts. And we continue to educate Snapchatters through resources like our in-app Safety Snapshot on financial sextortion, and on our Privacy & Safety Hub”, Ben continued.

“Our newest safeguards are all about supporting real and genuine connections, empowering young people to make smart choices, and ensuring that every Snapchatter feels secure and confident while using our platform.”

The new safeguards announced today include:

Expanded In-App Warnings

Last November, Snapchat introduced a pop-up warning when a teen receives a message from someone they don’t already share mutual friends with or have in their contacts. The message informs teens of potential risk so they can carefully consider if they want to be in contact, and reminds them to only connect with people they trust. Since launch, this feature has empowered millions of Snapchatters to take action, leading to more than 12 million blocks.

Today, Snapchat is expanding these in-app warnings to incorporate new and advanced signals. Teens will now see a warning message if they receive a chat from someone who has been blocked or reported by others, or is from a region where the teenager’s network isn't typically located – signs that the person may be a scammer.

Enhanced Friending Protections

While teens are currently not suggested in Quick Add or Search unless they have multiple mutual connections with the other person, Snapchat is now adding new friending safeguards that, coupled with the expanded in-app warnings, make it much harder for strangers to find and add teens.

Snapchat will prevent delivery of a friend request altogether when teens send or receive a friend request from someone they don't have mutual friends with, and that person also has a history of accessing Snapchat in locations often associated with scamming activity. This applies regardless of whether the friend request was sent out by a teen, or sent to a teen from a potential bad actor.

This feature is currently available in a select few countries and will be introduced in New Zealand as part of a future roll out.

These two updates continue Snapchat’s work to address the growing trend of sophisticated sextortion scams, where criminals are typically located outside of New Zealand.

Blocking Improvements

The platform has long offered tools for Snapchatters to easily block someone if they no longer wish to be in touch with them. Sometimes, bad actors create new accounts and continue to try to contact people who have blocked them. To prevent bullying and potential repeat harassment, Snapchat is introducing improvements to their blocking tools: blocking a user will also now also block new friend requests sent from other accounts created on the same device.

Simplified Location-Sharing and Additional Reminders

All Snapchatters, including teens, are sent regular reminders to check their account security and privacy settings, and only allow Snapchatters to share their location with friends. Now Snapchat is introducing more frequent reminders to make sure that Snapchatters are always up to date on which friends they’re sharing their location with on the Snap Map. The platform is also introducing simplified location-sharing, making it easier for Snapchatters to customise which of their friends can see their location. With these updates, Snapchatters have a single destination to see exactly which friends they are sharing their location with, update their location settings, and remove their location from the map.

As always, location sharing on the Snap Map remains off by default, meaning that Snapchatters have to proactively opt in to share where they are. And Snapchatters can only ever share their whereabouts with their existing Snapchat friends – there is no option to broadcast their location to the wider Snapchat community.

These new tools build on the platform’s ongoing work to further enhance safety for teens using Snapchat.

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