It’s Friday, January 23, 2026, and if you’re a parent in India trying to figure out what exactly your teen is doing on Snapchat all day, you just got a much clearer window into that “yellow ghost” app.
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The thing is, Snapchat just rolled out a major update to its Family Center in India. It’s an ongoing situation where tech platforms are being forced to give parents more control, but Snap is trying to do it without “spying.” Or nothing.
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The Snap Oversight: Field Notes
It’s not about reading their DMs—Snapchat is staying firm on that—but it’s about the “metadata” of their life. Here’s the ground reality of the new tools:
The Screen Time Breakdown: For the first time, you can see exactly how many hours they spent on the app over the last week. The thing is, it even breaks it down by feature. You’ll know if they spent three hours in Spotlight (their version of TikTok) or if they were mostly Chatting. Those too.
The “Mutual Friend” Detective: When your teen adds someone new, you’ll now see “trust signals.” It’ll show if they have mutual friends or if that person is already in their phone’s contact book. Let’s be real—if they add a stranger with zero mutuals, that’s your cue to have “the talk.” Or nothing.
Map Transparency: You can’t track their every move in real-time (unless they choose to share it), but you can now see exactly who they are sharing their location with. If they’ve accidentally left it on “Public,” you’ll know.
AI Kill-Switch: And here’s the kicker—parents can now completely disable My AI (the chatbot) and even the upcoming Perplexity AI search integration. If you don’t want them talking to a bot, you can just turn it off.
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Snapchat Safety Dashboard (Jan 2026 Update)
| Feature | What Parents See | The “Privacy” Guardrail |
| Usage Insights | Daily average time + feature breakdown. | No access to specific Snaps or photos. |
| New Friends | Mutual friends, shared communities, contact sync. | No access to the actual chat history. |
| Snap Map | Current location-sharing settings and list of viewers. | No live movement tracking (unless shared). |
| AI Controls | Toggle for My AI and Perplexity AI search. | Parents can’t see what the teen asked the AI. |
| Educational | “The Keys” digital safety course for families. | Designed to be watched with the teen. |
And Here’s the Kicker…
The thing is, to use any of this, you and your teen have to opt-in together. You send an invite, they accept it. Let’s be real—if your teen is a “Ghost Mode” pro, getting them to link accounts might be the hardest part of the process. Those too.
One side comment—this rollout follows a massive lawsuit settlement regarding teen mental health. It’s an ongoing situation where Snapchat is trying to prove they aren’t “addictive by design” by giving you the “off” switch for certain features. Or nothing.
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End…
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