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Snapchat is changing its friend referral feature in response to requests for increased security in the app. The company is making it harder for unknown adults to find teens on its app by limit friend referrals in its “Easy Add” function.
From now on, the app will not show the accounts of teens ages 13 to 17 under “Easy Add” unless they have “a certain number of accounts in common,” according to Snap. While the change won’t stop adults and teens from connecting at all, it could make it harder for strangers to find teens they don’t know. In a blog post, the company said the change was part of its work to “combat the fentanyl epidemic” and prevent drug dealers from finding “new ways to abuse Snapchat.”
The company being constantly audited by the government over its control of drug dealers on its platform in recent months. Lawmakers and safety advocates in the United States have pressed Snap to do more to keep traffickers off Snapchat following the overdose reports linked to drugs purchased through the app. Snap also said Tuesday that it has improved its ability to proactively detect “drug-related content” on its platform, with 88% of “drug-related content” now being “proactively detected” with Artificial Intelligence. The company also notes that it has beefed up the team that works directly with law enforcement and has “significantly improved” its response time to law enforcement requests.
At a Senate hearing last fall, Snap’s vice president of global public policy, Jennifer Stout, said the company was working on new parental control features that would make it easier for parents to monitor their children’s activity on the app. . Those updates have yet to be released, though the company expects them to be available “in the coming months.”
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