Snap CEO says 20 million U.S. teenagers use Snapchat, however solely 200,000 dad and mom use its Household Middle controls

Throughout at present’s Senate Judiciary Committee listening to on kids’ online safety, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel shared that 20 million youngsters use Snapchat in the USA and that round 200,000 dad and mom use its Household Middle supervision controls. He additionally shared that roughly 400,000 teen accounts have been linked to a dad or mum’s account by way of Household Middle. Spiegel’s testimony marks the primary time that Snap has shared real-world metrics concerning the utilization of Snapchat’s parental controls.

Snapchat’s Family Center, which permits dad and mom to see who their teenagers are mates with on the app and who they’ve been speaking with, first launched in 2022.

Spiegel shared the numbers after Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif) requested the CEO’s of Snap, Meta, TikTok, X and Discord to reveal what number of minors had been utilizing their platforms and what number of dad and mom had been utilizing parental supervision controls provided by the companies.

“We create a banner for Family Center on the user’s profiles,” Spiegel mentioned after being requested what Snapchat was doing to make sure dad and mom and guardians are conscious of the instruments. “So the accounts we believe may be the age that they can be parents can see the entry point into Family Center easily.”

Snap launched the parental controls in response to increased pressure on social networks to higher defend minor customers from hurt. Snapchat’s roll out of Household Middle adopted the the launches of comparable parental management options throughout different apps, together with Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Spiegel was the one CEO to share numbers in response to Senator Padilla’s query.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg mentioned he was unable to supply particular numbers, however mentioned that the corporate runs “extensive ad campaigns” each on its platform and outdoors to lift consciousness of its parental supervision instruments.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino shared that lower than 1% of the platform’s 90 million U.S. customers are between the ages of 13 and 17, and that the corporate is discussing parental controls.

“Being a 14 month old company we have reprioritized child protection and safety measures,” Yaccarino mentioned. “We have just begun to talk about and discuss how we can enhance those with parental controls.”

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew mentioned he was unable to share specifics, however that TikTok was “one of the first platforms” to present dad and mom supervision controls. Discord CEO Jason Citron mentioned that Discord raises consciousness of its parental controls by way of promotional movies and in-app prompts.