Snapchat Brings Parental-Control Tools To India After Its US Debut

A couple of months after its introduction in the US market, messaging and social networking app Snapchat has brought an initial set of parental control tools to India for its users. With the in-app tool, Family Centre, the social media app aims to provide parents and guardians insights into how their teens are using the app.

Parents and guardians will be able to see who their kids are friends with online, and view contacts that their children have messaged in the last seven days. However, the tool will not allow parents or guardians to see the exact content of the messages.

Moreover, parents can head to Snap Inc’s ‘Trust and Safety’ team for a review if they think that there is any safety issue for their children on the app.

To use this tool, parents and guardians will need to download Snapchat on their devices. Following that, they can link their accounts with that of their children’s through an invite process. Parents will be able to access Family Centre from profile settings or by typing family or family center after the accounts are linked.

“Snapchat is a central communications tool for so many young Indians, and as our community continues to grow, we know parents and caregivers want additional ways to help keep their teens safe,” Uthara Ganesh, public policy head, India, Snap, was quoted as saying in a Techcrunch report.

The parental control tool is only available to parents and guardians of teens between the ages of 13 and 18, as the minimum age to use Snapchat is 13.

India is a key market for Snapchat. In October last year, it said that it had acquired 100 Mn users in the country. In August this year, Snapchat also introduced its subscription service in India, priced at INR 49 per month.

Last month, Meta-owned Instagram also rolled out its parental supervision tools in India to help parents get more involved in their teens’ experiences on the platform.

Rising internet penetration and the number of smartphone users in the country have made India a very lucrative market for social networking and messaging companies. According to a Deloitte report, India currently has 750 Mn smartphone users, and this number is expected to rise to 1 Bn by 2026.

While Facebook and Instagram have over 329 Mn and 230 Mn users in India, respectively, WhatsApp has 390 Mn users in the country. As per a report, the penetration of social networks would rise to 67% of India’s population by 2025.