Snapchat has begun turning off its Find Friends feature by default for child users in Britain, in a change intended to reduce exposure to strangers online. Ofcom announced the start of the rollout on 6 November and said it would hold the company to its commitment to finish this month.
The change concerns a default setting for children, rather than a ban on Snapchat or a global removal of the feature. Its significance lies in what a young user encounters without first having to find and change a privacy control.
Safer defaults, a rollout still under way
Ofcom also said Snapchat had committed to applying highly effective age checks by the end of the year so that under-18s benefit from the new measures. The two deadlines describe different steps: completing the feature change and identifying the users who need the protection.
A default setting can reduce a route through which unfamiliar people discover or approach a child. It does not establish that all unwanted contact has been prevented, nor does it remove the importance of reporting tools and responses when a user raises a concern.
The test is implementation
The regulator linked the change to pressure on technology companies to address grooming risks and said it would monitor progress. The immediate question is whether the promised safeguards reach the intended users, not simply whether the company has announced a policy.
For families in Britain, the practical distinction is between an update being introduced and one already present on a particular account. The announcement should therefore be read as a change in progress. It is not confirmation that the same settings have been introduced for every Snapchat user in other countries.
