Snapchat’s new safety rules for users under 16

Snapchat is introducing new content sharing protections for users aged 13 to 15.

The platform announced Wednesday that newbies will receive “friends only” information in their Open posts. That social feed consists of short direct videos like Instagram Reels or TikTok.

The new rules make Spotlight content posted by adults aged 13-15 visible only to the user’s mutually accepted friends. Previously, users under the age of 16 could post to Spotlight, without being identified in their profile.

“This allowed youth to participate, while helping to protect them from the potentially unwanted communication that can come with social posting,” the Snap Company said in its announcement.

Now young Snapchatters will have space on their profile to create, save, and share stories and videos that are public with their friends only. 16- and 17-year-olds can share content publicly with some protections.

“This new experience is designed to encourage creativity and self-expression within a loyal audience,” the company said.

Checking age on Snapchat

Currently, Snapchat relies on self-verification based on age and gender, but security advocates generally say social networks require higher age verification to ensure their security measures are effective.

When Mashable checked Snapchat’s age proof before the announcement, we found that Snapchat changed the age of the user to 18.

With the new policy, if Snapchat determines that a user is under the age of 16, regardless of their specified age, that child will be switched to a friends-only sharing setting. That change will appear in the Snapchat app if they choose to post a transparent video.

Snapchat security concerns

Last week, advocacy groups Heat Initiative, Anxious Generation, ParentsTogether Action, and Design It 4 Us published the results of a survey of young Snapchat users, saying the platform’s security measures are not effective enough.

A third of the 1,016 poll respondents said they had seen or received unsafe content or messages in the past week. More than half said they had had such an experience at least in the past year.

The top three types of risky experiences reported by teens up to three were unwanted communication, bullying, and sexually suggestive content and messages. More than 40 percent of respondents who received spam believe the sender is an adult.

A Snap Company spokesperson told Mashable that the report “doesn’t fully reflect the significant investment Snap has made to help protect young people.”

In a blog post published by Snap on Wednesday, the company noted that it is working to prevent the delivery of friend requests from potential strangers, and that the platform does not allow teenagers to be sent a message by anyone they do not add as a friend or who is not in their phone contacts. Additionally, when teens accept a stranger as a friend, Snapchat is designed to send alerts when kids start chatting with that user.

“After years of advocacy from parents, kids and experts, it’s encouraging that Snap is finally making some changes to prevent young children from posting to adult sites, which has put children at risk on the platform for years,” Brooke Istook, president and chief strategy officer at the Heat Initiative, said in a statement to Mashable.

However, Istook added that “significant risks to children embedded in the design of Snapchat” remain unresolved, including the facilitation of unsafe communication between youth and adults and the algorithmic recommendation of unsafe content.

Snapchat has been the target of youth safety struggles and the target of legal action, like many major social media platforms. In January, Snap settled a lawsuit brought by a teenager who claimed that Snapchat’s design features, such as algorithmic recommendations, led to the use of addiction and brain damage. Soon after, Snap introduced new parental controls for teenagers.

BEFORE: June 10, 2026, 8:27 am PDT This story has been updated to include a statement from the Heat Initiative.