9 tips on how to keep your child safe on Snapchat!!

Snapchat is a popular social network used by young people to connect and maintain contact with relatives and friends. Snapchat is famous for its Snaps disappearing, but is that really safe for users, especially teens?

Snapchat do not have Snapchat Parental Controls, however, you can enhance your child’s online safety when using Snapchat by giving them mini-lessons about tools and tips to use Snapchat securely! The article below will help you!

Let’s join with CyberPurify to explore 9 tips on how to keep your child safe on Snapchat!!

9 tips on how to keep your child safe on Snapchat!!

Choose a strong password

Choose a password that’s at least 8 characters long and doesn’t include personal information, like your child’s name, account name, phone number, or date of birth. Strong passwords should include a combination of numbers, symbols, and upper and lowercase letters in your child’s password.

Don’t share passwords with others, and don’t use the same password for other apps or websites. If your child doesn’t remember their Snapchat password, they can try to reset the password.

Note that your child will not be able to reset their password if:

• The email address your child entered is not associated with the account
• They don’t remember the relevant email address and/or phone number or
• They do not have access to the email address and/or phone number associated with the account.

Your child can follow the below steps, for email:

1. Click on Forget your password? and choose how to reset your password via phone number or email.
2. Select via Email
3. Your child will receive an email reset password link to the email address associated with your child’s account
4. Click on the URL
5. Finally, enter your new password! Don’t forget that you should create a strong password as mentioned above.

Your child can follow the below steps, for phone numbers:

1. Click on Forget your password? and choose how to reset your password via phone number or email.
2. Select via Phone
3. A verification code will be sent to the phone number associated with your child’s account
4. Enter the verification code and select Continue
5. Finally, enter your new password! Don’t forget that you should create a strong password as mentioned above.

Never share passwords with anyone!

Representatives or employees from Snapchat will never ask the user for a password. This is the “golden rule” when using social networks in general, not just Snapchat. Besides, your children also need to change their passwords regularly.

Check your child’s privacy settings

Your child can follow the below steps:

1. On your child’s profile screen, tap icon
2. Scroll down and select Who can…
3. Choose from the following options:

• Who Can Contact Me: Choose who can contact your child directly by Snaps, Chat, call, etc.
• Send Me Notifications: Choose to receive notifications from everyone or just friends.
• Who Can View My Story: Choose who can see your child’s Story.
• Who Can See My Location: Choose who can see your child’s location on the Snap map.
• Who Can See Me In Quick Add: Choose who can see you in Quick Add, a feature appearing on Snapchat that makes it easier to add friends.

Don’t forget to verify email and mobile number

Verifying that the email address and phone number that are quite important in recovering your child’s password associated with your account is correct in the Snapchat settings.

To set your child’s email address:

1. On your child’s profile screen, tap icon
2. Select Email
3. Select Email address and enter a valid email address
4. Snapchat will then verify your child’s email address. Email address verification can help your child secure his or her account

To verify an email address:

1. On your child’s profile screen, tap icon
2. Tap on the email address shown in red
3. A verification email will be sent to the email address associated with your child’s account
4. Follow the instructions in the email to complete your verification

Carefully consider Screenshots

Snaps are designed to disappear, but the people your child sends Snaps to can still take screenshots or take Snaps with another device, so your child needs to think and consider before sharing.

A lot of kids have the misconception that Snaps will disappear so they send sensitive pictures of their bodies to each other without careful consideration. This is extremely dangerous, maybe your child is in a good relationship with the other person, but later if something goes wrong, the other person can still share the images with others. This will do harm to the rest of your child’s life!

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Besides, don’t forget that any of these images/videos sent, shared, posted on social networks will exist forever on the Internet – it is called digital footprints. That’s why you should always tell your child to be very careful in sharing anything, as just one small mistake can have a negative impact on his/her whole life.

Set up two-factor authentication

Another useful tip on how to keep your child safe on Snapchat. Two-factor authentication is an optional security feature to verify that it’s really your kid when he/she logs into his Snapchat account! Almost every social media app has this feature set up for two-factor authentication and should be used by your kids for better account security.

When two-factor authentication is enabled and your child is signed in on a new device, your child will be asked to enter a Login code. Snapchat will send your child this Login code as an SMS, or your child can get it from a special authentication app on their device.

The steps are as follows:

1. On your child’s profile screen, tap icon
2. Tap Two-Factor Authentication
3. Tap Continue

Only talk to those your child really know

Snapchat was created to stay in touch and maintain relationships with users’ close friends so your child should only talk or accept friend requests from people your child actually knows in real life.

There are a lot of sexual attackers these days impersonating children or teenagers to get in touch, build trust by complimenting your child, promising gifts, etc. then send pornographic material to stimulate your child’s curiosity, gradually enticing her to take sensitive photos/videos of herself – or this is called sexting!

Limit sharing your location

One of the most important Snapchat safety settings for parents! Your child should only share location with close friends. It is best for your child to still not share his location, to do that, your child can turn on Ghost Mode when your child does not want anyone to know his location, then your child’s Bitmoji will have an icon ?. However, Stories can still show up on the map!

To adjust the location viewer:

1. On your child’s profile screen, tap icon
2. Select Who Can See My Location
3. Select the ones your child wants to share their location with

Adjust who can see your child’s stories

The default privacy setting is that only Snapchatters you’ve added can see your Stories. The privacy settings you have when you send a Snap to your Stories will remain for that Snap, even if you change the settings later.

The steps are as follows:

1. On your child’s profile screen, tap icon
2. Scroll down and select Who can…
3. Select View My Story
4. You can choose Everyone,  My Friends, or Custom. CyberPurify encourages your child not to choose Everyone to keep your child safe from strangers!

Don’t forget that besides Snapchat, there are HUGE amount of harmful content out there!

When you communicate clearly and openly with your baby about Snapchat safety tips, why need to search for “How to keep an eye on my child’s Snapchat?” anymore? We always recommend parents protect their children but never monitoring them. That only makes children hate you more, you don’t want that, do you?

That’s why we spend 14 years making a solution only for parents, protecting not monitoring. To ensure your child’s online environment is safe and healthier, you should consider using an additional online content filtering tool – considered by many parents as one of the best free parental control software to hide 15 types of harmful content on the Internet, including:

• Pornography
• Horrifying content like gore, accidents, ghosts, violence, murder, terrorism, etc
• Content about stimulants, addictive substances such as alcohol, beer, marijuana, drugs, etc
• Content with aggressive elements, hurting others like Hate speech

This free porn blocker extension can help to minimize your child’s access to harmful content, ensuring a healthy online environment for your child but at the same time, not invading their privacy rights.

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