SOCIAL media app Snapchat has introduced a new feature that allows users to share their locations with their friends in real-time.

This fun and usually innocent app is a popular pastime for adults and young people alike, so it is important that parents take one simple precaution to ensure their security and safety is not compromised without realising.

According to recent app updates on Snapchat, you can now zoom in on Snapchat friends and know as precise a location as what street they are currently on.

What’s worse is that the feature appears to be enabled by default, with users having to actively enter ‘Ghost mode’ in order to turn it off.

With young kids loving the fantastic qualities that this fun app allows them, it is important for parents to get to know the settings of the app if they are not conversant with Snapchat, and switch their settings to this ‘ghost mode’.

To do this, make sure the app is the updated version,  go to ‘selfie mode’ on the camera screen and then zoom out.

It will give you the option of changing to who can see your location.

Alternatively make sure ‘location services’ is turned off on the whole app through the app settings in the main part of your phone.

Mum to pre-teen Lexie, Kyra McGrorey-Clark told News Of The Area, “I think it’s really important to monitor rather than ban kids on social media.”

“If I were to say no to her all the time eventually she would start going behind my back, so I’d much rather be open and honest with her and set some boundaries along the way, including my access to her accounts.”

“She has received some chain mail in the past that she wasn’t comfortable with and immediately came and showed me and wasn’t afraid of what I might say; I must be doing something right,” she said.

It is not hard to fake a Snapchat and this can easily put young people at risk when someone knows your every move.

 

By Rachael VAUGHAN