Education & Reminders: Snapchatters are taken through a tutorial when they use Snap Map for the first time. Here, they can learn how to opt-in for location sharing, how to select friends to share with, and how to update settings at any time.
Additional Privacy Safeguards: Only content that is proactively submitted to the Snap Map appears on it; Snaps between friends remain private. For Snapchatters who maintain our default privacy setting, content shown on the Map is automatically anonymized, so anyone looking at the Map cannot see the name, contact information, or exact location of the person who shared.
We know that mobile location sharing is sensitive and needs to be used with caution, but we believe that with the right safeguards in place, it can be an impactful way for friends to not only stay connected, but also to help keep each other safe. We encourage you to visit our support page here for more information.
Today is international Safer Internet Day (SID), an annual event dedicated to people coming together around the world to make the internet safer and healthier for everyone, especially young people. SID 2022 marks 19 straight years of Safer Internet Day celebrations, and the world is again rallying around the theme, “Together for a better internet.”
Snapchatters who choose to share their location with their friends receive periodic reminders asking them to confirm that they are still comfortable with their settings and if they are not, they can easily switch off location sharing without prompting other users
At Snap, we’re taking this opportunity to highlight the benefits and importance of letting us know when you see something on Snapchat that may be of concern to you. Snapchat is about sharing and communicating with close friends, and we want everyone to feel safe, confident and comfortable sending Snaps and Chats. Still, there may be times when people may share content or behave in a way that conflicts with our Community Guidelines.
We also protect sensitive businesses and locations on the Map
When it comes to staying safe online, everyone has a role to play, and we want all Snapchatters to know that reporting abusive or harmful content and behavior – so that we can address it – improves the community experience for everyone. In fact, this is one of the most important things Snapchatters can do to help keep the platform free of bad actors and harmful content.
Research shows young people may be unwilling to report content or behaviors for a variety of reasons. Some of these ics, but platforms can also do a better job of debunking certain myths about reporting to foster comfort in contacting us. For example, in , we learned that just over a third of young people surveyed (34%) said they worry what their friends will think if they take action against bad behavior on social media. In addition, almost one in four (39%) said they feel pressure not to act when someone they personally know behaves badly. These findings come from Managing the Narrative: Young People’s Use of Online Safety Tools, conducted by Harris Insights and Analytics for the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) and sponsored by Snap.
The FOSI research polled several cohorts of teens 
, aged 13 to 17, and young adults, aged 18 to 24, in the U.S. In addition to the quantitative components, the survey sought participants’ general views on reporting and other topics. One comment from an 18-year-old summed up a number of young people’s perspectives, “I guess I didn’t think the offense was extreme enough to report.”