Snapchat adds parental controls as Gulf region faces growing safety pressure

By Mo

Published: 2026-01-24T00:02:25.000Z

Snap expanded Family Center features two days after settling an addiction lawsuit, a move particularly relevant to the Middle East where Snapchat dominates youth engagement more than anywhere else globally.

Snap has rolled out new parental monitoring features for its Family Center tool, allowing parents to track how much time teens spend on Snapchat and see details about new friend connections. The announcement came two days after the company settled a lawsuit accusing it of designing features that fueled social media addiction and mental health harm among young users, highlighting mounting pressure around platform safety that extends well beyond the United States and carries particular weight in the Middle East, where Snapchat has built deeper penetration than in nearly any other region globally. Parents using Family Center can now view the average daily time their teen spent on Snapchat over the previous week, with usage broken down by activity type including chatting, snapping, camera use, Snap Map navigation, and content consumption on Spotlight and Stories. The feature provides visibility into patterns without revealing conversation content, maintaining what Snap describes as a balance between parental oversight and teen privacy. Parents can also see how their teen likely knows a new contact they have added as a friend, with indicators showing whether they share mutual friends, are saved as contacts, or belong to shared communities. Snap said these trust signals make it easier for parents to understand new connections and have confidence their teen is chatting with someone they know offline. The update arrives at a moment when regulators across the Gulf are sharpening their focus on digital safety for minors. The UAE issued Federal Decree Law No. 26 of 2025 on Child Digital Safety in late December, establishing a comprehensive framework that requires digital platforms operating in or targeting users in the Emirates to implement default privacy settings, age verification tools, content filtering, and robust parental controls. The law, which came into force in January 2026 with a one-year grace period for compliance, applies to social media platforms, gaming services, streaming apps, and e-commerce sites regardless of whether they maintain a physical presence in the UAE. Platforms must also restrict the collection and use of personal data from children under 13 and provide mechanisms to limit excessive engagement, including usage limits and mandatory breaks. The regulatory push matters particularly in the Middle East because Snapchat enjoys extraordinarily high penetration rates in the region that dwarf its global footprint. Saudi Arabia leads globally with approximately 87 to 88 percent of its eligible population aged 13 and above on Snapchat, according to data from DataReportal and Statista , while the UAE follows with roughly 49 percent penetration. Over 90 percent of young Saudis aged 13 to 34 actively use the platform, opening the app an average of 50 times per day and spending around 35 minutes daily engaging with content, figures that exceed Snapchat's global averages of 30 daily opens and similar time spent, according to industry research published by Thunder . The app reaches more than 24 million users in Saudi Arabia alone as of early 2025, according to DataReportal's Saudi Arabia Digital 2025 report , making it one of the top six markets worldwide by total audience size. Snap launched Family Center in 2022 as regulators and lawmakers increased scrutiny over how social media companies protect minors. The tool has been expanded over time to include features allowing parents to see who teens recently interacted with, set time restrictions, and block access to the My AI chatbot. The latest additions build on that foundation by surfacing granular usage data and contextual information about friend networks, areas where parents have pressed for greater transparency as concerns about screen time, online safety, and mental health have intensified. The timing of the announcement underscores the link between legal exposure and product development. Snap settled a lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old identified in court documents as K.G.M., who accused the company and other social media platforms including Meta , YouTube, and TikTok of designing algorithms and features that caused addiction and harmed mental health. The settlement was reached earlier in the week, though terms were not disclosed. The remaining defendants, including Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, are still facing the lawsuit, with jury selection scheduled to begin soon. Snap remains a defendant in additional social media addiction cases, and documents disclosed in ongoing litigation revealed that Snap employees raised concerns about risks to teens' mental health as far back as nine years ago, though the company has said those examples were cherry-picked and taken out of context. The Middle East's regulatory environment is evolving rapidly around child safety and digital content. Saudi Arabia has also moved to restrict how children are featured in influencer content, with new guidelines effectively banning minors from appearing in monetized social media p