At BrightCanary, we believe in respecting kids’ privacy while also protecting their safety. Our concerning content alerts were designed with just that balance in mind. But you might worry about how your child will react when you tell them about an alert you received. Will they get angry or feel it’s an invasion of their privacy?
I get it. Those concerns are valid. They’re also manageable. Here are some tips and conversation starters for using BrightCanary’s concerning content alerts in a way that’s positive and productive for everyone.
BrightCanary scans everything your child types on their device and sends you real-time alerts to any red flags.
The alert system automatically looks for common concerns like alcohol and drugs, extremist ideology, and weapons. It’s also frequently trained on the latest slang and internet trends, and you can add custom keywords. You can always access full transcripts if you need more context.
Take these steps when you first start using BrightCanary to set your family up for success.
Talk to your child before you ever get an alert. Monitoring your child without telling them is spying, and this breach of trust is likely to upset them. Explain to your child why and how you’ll be using BrightCanary.
Talking points:
If you have expectations about your child’s online behavior (e.g. not bullying or posting provocative photos) be explicit and put it in writing. If something comes up, everyone might not be happy, but at least you’ll be on the same page.
Talking points:
I can’t promise your kid will be happy when you tell them about BrightCanary. (Neutral might be the best you can hope for.) What I do know is that it’s totally possible to respect their feelings while standing firm.
If your child is upset, give them space to air their concerns, compromise if you truly feel it’s right, and hold your ground on what’s important to you.
Talking points:
When you get a BrightCanary alert, what you do next matters. Here’s how to handle those tough conversations.
Be prepared to let some things go. I know, I know … it’s not easy, but mistakes are how kids learn. Plus, if you make a big deal out of every little thing, they’re liable to start tuning you out.
Staying quiet on smaller things that don’t impact their safety (profanity or a new boyfriend they’re keeping under wraps, for example) will give more weight to the things that truly matter.
I recently got an alert that my son was trying to create a code to talk to his friend in secret.
A quick peek at the full transcript revealed it was his cousin, and they were replicating a game they’d started ages ago through snail mail, where they say innocent (though sometimes boy-gross) things.
My point is, before you jump to the worst-case conclusion, get some context.
Speaking of context, when you get an alert, don’t forget to ask your kid what happened. Listen without interrupting, and keep an open mind. Combine their perspective with what you find on the BrightCanary transcript and make a plan. (Hint: It’s okay to tell them you need time to think, as long as you regroup soon.)
Talking points:
Concerning content alerts may bring up strong feelings for you, but freaking out won’t help the situation. When you talk to your child, do your best to stay calm and lead with love.
Remember: they're still learning, and your job is to guide them with as much empathy and patience as you can muster. (Hugs can help, even if your tween or teen will never admit it.)
Talking points:
BrightCanary’s concerning content alerts might bring up big feelings for both you and your child. Transparency and clear expectations help build trust from the get-go. If you get an alert, use BrightCanary’s full transcripts and talk to your child to get the full picture. Lead with love and remember you and your child are on the same team, with a shared goal of keeping them safe.
Even if your child never types “OnlyFans” into a browser, the site can still find your child. OnlyFans is infamous for explicit adult content, and Social media is the primary marketing vehicle for most OnlyFans creators, with posts that toe the line of platforms’ restrictions in an attempt to lure followers to paid content. Even more shocking is the fact that agencies representing OnlyFans creators have been accused of using social media to recruit teenage girls.
Here’s how social media became a gateway to OnlyFans and a breeding ground for future adult content creators.
OnlyFans is an online platform that features user-generated content. Creators share exclusive photos, videos, and livestreams with their followers.
Content is monetized through monthly subscriptions, tips, and pay-per-view. Despite recent attempts to rebrand itself, an estimated 70–98% of the site’s content is adult.
Because OnlyFans lacks a recommendation or preview feature and largely relies on creators’ self-marketing, many OnlyFans creators turn to social media to find new subscribers. They do this by posting content on social media (primarily TikTok and Instagram) that’s suggestive but not outright explicit. Often, that content manages to be both modest and suggestive; think onesie pajamas while doing a TikTok dance involving a lot of jumping and bouncing. They then entice followers over to their paid content on OnlyFans.
The minimum age to access OnlyFans is 18. However, in many locations, there’s no required age verification process. In jurisdictions where laws require adult sites to verify age through a photo ID, some minors turn to VPNs to spoof their location and get access.
Consuming content isn’t the only way minors can find their way to OnlyFans. A Reuters investigation revealed police and court filings in the U.S. alleging hundreds of explicit videos and images of minors on OnlyFans.
Marketing efforts on social media by OnlyFans creators not only draw in patrons, but also create a pipeline for future content creators. There are a few ways this happens:
One pair of researchers argue that repeated exposure to this type of content on social media shapes adolescents’ perception of OnlyFans as a viable career path. In focus groups with Spanish students aged 12–16, they found that some participants viewed OnlyFans as “an attractive professional alternative,” particularly for conventionally attractive girls.
The Bop House, a content house for a group of young female OnlyFans creators, exploded in popularity a few years ago. The name comes from the slang term “bop,” for a person who has had many sexual partners. The young-looking Bop House residents post videos of themselves dancing and having fun together in their sprawling mansion, like some kind of luxury sleepover. Bop House has periodically put out casting calls on their TikTok looking for new members.
Victoria Sinis, a former recruiter for an OnlyFans talent agency who now speaks out against the industry, told KHOU that she’s heard of girls as young as 14 storing up their content so they can audition for Bob House when they turn 18. Sinis says her agency had an Instagram page and would use it to bring girls to lavish parties designed to showcase the potential lifestyle being an OnlyFans creator could bring them.
These promises are often a ruse. Despite high-profile creators like The Bop House, only a small fraction make the kind of money girls are promised. The average OnlyFans creator earns just $131 per month after the 20% platform fee.
Some OnlyFans “talent agents” use social media to reach out directly to potential recruits, including minors, enticing them to make adult content once they turn 18. One such agent was recently arrested on human trafficking charges.
Protect your child with these steps:
BrightCanary automatically scans for signs of adult content, and you can add custom keywords, like these hashtags and keywords associated with OnlyFans and the adult industry:
Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok have become pipelines to OnlyFans, the site known for adult content. OnlyFans creators post suggestive TikTok and Instagram content to draw in followers, and “talent agencies” have been accused of recruiting teens with promises of wealth that rarely materialize. You can protect your child by blocking adult sites, watching for VPN use, and monitoring online activity for warning signs.
When I was asked to investigate if CapCut is safe for kids, I was skeptical I’d uncover any risks worth alerting parents about. I’ve used CapCut for light video editing, and it seemed innocuous.
I stand corrected.
CapCut has benefits for kids and it’s possible to use it safely, but there are also some big risks.
CapCut is a video editing tool developed by TikTok’s parent company that’s popular with young users. It’s designed for creating short-form content to post on social media.
With CapCut’s wide arsenal of tools, users can:
The minimum age to use CapCut is 13, but verification is only a user-provided birthdate, so it’s easy to bypass.
CapCut doesn’t have parental controls. There also aren’t meaningful privacy or content settings. Users can delete their watch history, making it difficult to monitor what your child views.
To understand the risks to kids, you have to understand the CapCut Creator program, which introduces social-media-like elements to the app.
There’s no direct message feature, but strangers can still connect with your child:
With BrightCanary monitoring, you can see what your child is messaging on all the apps they use — including CapCut.
Nudity isn’t allowed, but it slips through. You’ll also find mature themes, explicit language, and clothed but suggestive videos in templates. There are also videos which are blurred out with the text “Export to see.” By downloading the video and then re-uploading it to CapCut, users can remove the top layer to expose the underlying (often explicit) content.
CapCut’s filters can do everything from light retouches like smoothing skin to mimicking cosmetic procedures by reshaping the body and facial features. Manipulated videos like this create a distorted idea of beauty and can lead to lower body image and self-esteem.
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok and CapCut isn’t known for its prudent use of user data. This includes accusations that they harvest significantly more data than similar platforms and even that they share user data with the Chinese government.
These allegations relate to TikTok, but it doesn’t instill confidence in how they handle CapCut user data.
If your child joins the Creator program and starts posting templates, they have no control over how others will use their videos.
Once content is posted, CapCut instantly retains a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable license to use, edit, distribute, and sublicense content your child uploads to the platform. They can do so on any platform and for broad purposes.
Yikes.
There are compelling reasons to let kids use CapCut:
But, as with any app parents let their kids use, you’ll have to weigh the cost vs. reward and whether CapCut is safe for your kids.
Tell them not to link their CapCut to social media accounts, and emphasize never sharing personal info with strangers.
BrightCanary can help you monitor your child on CapCut, even if they delete their viewing history. BrightCanary monitors everything they type so you can see what your child searches on CapCut, the comments they leave, and the messages they send on other apps. You also get real-time alerts to any red flags.
When used to edit and create videos, CapCut can be a great means of creative expression for kids. But the social-media-like templates feature introduces risks like exposure to strangers and inappropriate material. Tell your child not to share personal information and monitor their use.
It might feel like no big deal to hand your child an account the minute they turn 13, particularly after Instagram’s public push for Teen Accounts. But the reality is more complicated. Instagram poses both benefits and risks to kids, and its promised protections aren’t always what they seem. Here’s what to consider when deciding if your child is ready for Instagram.
In most of the United States, the minimum age for Instagram is 13 (14 in Florida).
Instagram’s promised safeguards for kids have repeatedly failed to materialize or work correctly. Hopefully, Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement and oversight will hold them better accountable.
For now, kids face these risks without meaningful mitigation:
Alongside the risks, Instagram and other social media platforms can also be good for kids:
Instagram Teen Accounts provide some protections, like default private accounts and content filters. Under the terms of a major settlement in 2026, Meta must adopt these additional measures:
Here’s what to consider:
The risks and benefits of Instagram don’t impact all kids equally. If your child struggles with an eating disorder, they’re likely more vulnerable to disordered eating content and slimming filters. If they’re LGBTQIA+ or BIPOC and don’t have regular, in-person access to peers and role models who share their identity, Instagram could be a net positive experience for them.
More important than age is maturity level. Consider:
How your child handles screens in general can help predict how they’ll do with social media.
If and when you let your child on Instagram, these steps can help keep them safe:
It depends on your child’s maturity level and your comfort level as a parent. Instagram would have you believe their Teen Accounts mean the platform is safe for any child over 13, but the safeguards they’ve promised have failed time and time again. A new settlement will hopefully hold their feet to the fire and introduce meaningful protections for teens. If your child uses Instagram, use available parental controls and monitor their activity.
On the heels of the smash-hit novel Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke and the buzz surrounding the upcoming film adaptation starring Anne Hathaway, the tradwife movement is having a reckoning.
Despite how soothing it might be to watch someone milk a cow and grind their own wheat to make grilled cheese from scratch (yes, this is a real example), there’s more to the movement than sourdough starters and cottagecore couture.
#Tradwife is filling teens’ social media feeds with rigid gender roles, racism, and extreme ideologies. It’s even been called the female manosphere.
Tradwife (a portmanteau of “traditional” and “wife”) is an online subculture promoting traditional gender roles for women, such as being a stay-at-home mother, bearing lots of children, and submitting to their husband’s authority. The movement is characterized by a clean, retro aesthetic of 1950s-middle-class white domesticity with a heavy splash of rural homesteading.
#Tradwife hit virality in the early 2020s, buoyed by COVID’s forced retreat inside just as the rise of algorithms reshaped social media feeds in a way that favors controversial viewpoints.
Tradwife influencers are predominately young — many are teens themselves — and they’re catching the eye of teen girls online.
I need to pause here to be very clear: deciding to be a stay-at-home mom is a valid choice. It’s also a financial necessity for growing numbers of families. I’m not talking about a mutually agreed-upon domestic balance that leans toward gender norms. I’m talking about an ideology that celebrates male dominance, female submission, and financial dependency. Here are the risks:
Influencers only show what they want us to see. Tradwife content is often a fallacy propped up by smoke and mirrors, generational wealth, and invisible household staff. Most people can’t afford this kind of heavily curated existence.
The trend in the tradwife community is to marry young and reproduce prolifically, often foregoing college and starting a career. Coupled with the submissive dependence the movement encourages, this sets teen girls up to struggle to support themselves should the marriage go sour.
A portion of tradwife influencers promote taking away a woman's right to vote in favor of a single household vote cast by her husband.
One prominent tradwife issued a “white-baby challenge,” and even tradwives who don’t openly identify with racist ideas often use hashtags such as #14words and #1488 to signal their allegiance to white supremacy.
A cornerstone of tradwife culture is the return to “traditional values” of domesticity for women and moral authority for men. The picture of femininity they promote is narrow and rigid, with a woman’s place in the home, submitting to her husband, and bearing flocks of children.
There’s a significant overlap between the tradwife movement and alt-right ideologies.
Use digital check-ins and a monitoring app like BrightCanary to supervise your child’s online activity and see if they engage with tradwife content. Keep an eye out for these associated hashtags:
If your teen’s algorithm is filled with tradwife content, resetting their algorithm can help balance things out.
Balance rigid gender narratives they may see online by exposing them to a wide range of ideas on what it means to be a woman.
Tradwife culture promotes traditional, often rigid gender roles such as “a woman's place is in the home” and “a wife should submit to her husband’s authority.” The movement also has significant overlap with racist, sexist, and alt-right ideas. To protect your teen against the harms of the tradwife movement, monitor their online activity, help them reset their algorithm, and expose them to diverse gender expressions.
I’m low-key biding my time until the teens in my life replace their Amazon Christmas wish lists with links to TikTok Shop. TikTok users are just one swipe away from tens of millions of products that can be purchased without leaving the app. But is TikTok Shop safe for kids? Let’s find out.
TikTok Shop is an online marketplace where users can buy and sell products inside the app.
Far from the static experience of other selling platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace, TikTok Shop is an interactive experience featuring influencer content, personalized recommendations, and embedded social features like sharing.
TikTok Shop can be accessed through the “Shop” tab. Creators can also include links to TikTok Shop products in their videos. These promotional posts amount to semi-stealth commercials and frequently appear on users’ For You Page.
Officially, teen accounts can’t use TikTok Shop. But like most things social media, the reality is more nuanced, with a few workarounds for motivated kids. Here’s what I discovered when I tested it:
Users under 18 are prohibited from accessing TikTok Shop. In my test account for a 13-year-old, “Shop” didn’t even appear in the header menu. But I was able to create an adult account with only a fake birthdate and purchase from TikTok Shop.
I ran into more substantial barriers when I tried to become a seller on TikTok Shop using my fake account. I was prompted to upload a government-issued ID before continuing. Enterprising teens could figure a way around this, but it’s certainly a strong barrier.
I was also asked to provide a Social Security number. I bailed before that step because I’m not trying to give that level of information to TikTok, so I can’t verify if TikTok cross-references social security numbers with the age of the holder. But if so, this step is much harder (and much more illegal) to game.
I was prompted to enter the same identifying documents as when I tried to become a seller.
A number of sources state that age verification isn’t required to create affiliate accounts and earn commission from promoting TikTok Shop products. This information appears to be outdated. My testing found this loophole has been closed.
TL;DR: It’s quite a heavy lift for your child to sell or market TikTok Shop merchandise, but purchasing items is only one fabricated birthday away.
Because teen accounts can’t access TikTok Shop, parental controls don’t apply.
Scams, deepfake doctors selling dubious health products, and the risk of impulsive buying make TikTok Shop not safe for kids. Age verification is easy to fake, though, so make sure they’re on a teen account and monitor their use with BrightCanary.
Learn more about parental controls on TikTok, and find out how to limit purchases with Apple Screen Time controls.
True crime as a genre is hotter than ever. (SSDGM; IYKYK.) But indulging in podcasts, documentaries, and books shouldn’t be confused with the True Crime Community (TCC), a dangerous internet subculture frequented by kids that glorifies mass shooters. Here’s everything you need to know about TCC, including warning signs your child is involved and what you can do to protect them from its influence.
TCC is a decentralized online community fascinated with violence and mass shootings. Members create and share works glorifying real-world acts of violence, including fan art, fan fiction, and stylized videos and photos elevating perpetrators. They also share videos capturing violent acts and disseminate perpetrators’ manifestos and personal writings.
Analysis by the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) and the Center on Extremism have found that TCC followers skew concerningly young, with many teens and preteens actively participating.
Because TCC isn’t one centralized website or forum, there are a number of places where kids can encounter it.
Online gaming — particularly sandbox or open-play-style platforms, like Roblox or Garry’s Mod, that allow players to create and share content — are popular with TCC. In “TCC games,” real-world mass shootings are recreated.
Cody Zoschak, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told NPR that gore forums like Documenting Reality and WatchPeopleDie are common pipelines to TCC for boys.
According to Zoschak, girls are more likely to encounter TCC through online eating disorder communities.
TCC is active on most social media platforms, but is most visible on TikTok, Discord, Pinterest, and Telegram.
Because their brains aren’t fully formed and adolescence is a turbulent phase of development, kids are particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of graphic violence and extremism online. Certain factors can increase their susceptibility to falling into a community like TCC:
Struggles at home or at school can lead some kids to empathize with the outcast archetype of mass shooters.
Research identifies these mental health issues as common in perpetrators of school shootings, including those linked with TCC: depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, self-harm, social anxiety, suicidal ideation, and obsessive thoughts.
TCC is known for embracing outcasts, and kids who are bullied or feel alienated from their peers may be drawn to the sense of belonging.
Pay attention to your child’s behavior, both online and off. BrightCanary helps you monitor their online activity and sends real-time alerts to red flags, such as conversions about violence, concerning Google searches, and chats with new contacts.
Many kids find their way to TCC because they feel like they don’t fit in elsewhere; helping your child foster offline friendships can be protective.
Ask questions and make it clear you are there to support your child no matter what.
If you’re concerned, enlist other trusted adults to help you support your child, and consider professional mental health support.
If you’re concerned your child is planning to hurt themselves or others, these free crisis resources can help:
True Crime Community (TCC) is an online subculture that glorifies violence and mass shootings and counts many teens and preteens in its ranks. Involvement in TCC puts kids at risk of exposure to violent content, encouragement to commit violence, dangerous parasocial relationships, and suicide.
To protect your child, monitor their online activity for warning signs, help them create offline connections, and take swift action if you spot concerns.
According to my 14-year-old niece, teens hate using AI — except for homework. This isn’t hard evidence, but it still raises uncomfortable questions.
School districts are increasingly imposing moratoriums on AI, but it’s now embedded in our lives in ways that make preventing kids from using it complicated.
This article addresses three questions: Should kids use AI for homework? Can we actually stop them? And how do we teach them to use it safely and responsibly?
Early research suggests that the risks of kids using AI for education outweigh the benefits, and some experts suggest kids should never use generative AI. Here are some of the risks of letting kids use AI for homework without guardrails:
A report by the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education asserts that students who offload too much of their own thinking to AI can experience cognitive decline or atrophy at a level more commonly seen in aging brains.
Research on this is in its infancy, but kids who overuse AI may miss the critical developmental window for certain cognitive skills, and these skills may not be recoverable later.
Struggling to figure out a math problem or craft an essay is an essential component to the learning process. Using AI to eliminate that friction also reduces the learning opportunity.
Analysis by the New York Times found that Google’s AI overview produces tens of millions of incorrect answers per hour.
Banning Claude or ChatGPT doesn’t actually stop kids from using AI. The technology is now so embedded in everyday products that kids no longer have to seek out AI; AI finds them.
Since zero exposure is impossible, the goal then becomes teaching kids AI literacy and critical thinking. These tips help them avoid some of the AI pitfalls:
Kids need to know what they’re up against. Explain your concerns (and those of experts). Help your child see AI as a tool, not an infallible replacement for human expertise and judgment.
Alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo offer an AI-free option, and Startpage uses Google search results without AI mode or overviews.
Use reputable sources to verify any information provided by AI. That might mean cross-checking information with established news organizations, and looking beyond the headlines — for example, if an AI answer is pulling a statistic, double-check that the statistic actually exists and is accurate.
Don’t sleep on other research tools like school and public libraries, news outlets, Google Scholar, and academic institution websites.
ChatGPT study mode uses guided reasoning versus instant answers. In my testing, I found it was easy to convince it to do the work for me by telling it I was checking my answers, but it’s a better option than using ChatGPT without study mode.
The big players aren’t the only bots in the game. This chatbot from Critical Thinking Labs was designed to encourage critical thinking. Like ChatGPT study mode, it’s not a perfect solution, but it guides users to deepen their process and is far less eager to do the work for you than its counterparts.
Encourage your child’s curiosity and help them follow their interests. The Brookings Institution report suggests that students are less inclined to have AI do homework for them if they feel engaged by the work.
As parents, we need to develop and model our own critical thinking skills around AI. Here are some excellent resources to guide you.
BrightCanary is a child monitoring app that helps you keep track of:
This information is valuable as you guide them to use AI responsibly. For more tips, download our free downloadable AI toolkit for parents.
AI is increasingly unavoidable for kids when doing homework. That’s because it’s embedded into search results and common software.
Because of the risks of using AI for homework, such as missing the critical window for developing cognitive skills and the potential to reduce learning, you should take steps to help your child learn AI critical thinking skills.
Fostering curiosity, modeling critical thinking in how you use AI, and encouraging them to explore diverse research tools are some of the ways you can support your child as they navigate AI in their education.
By some measures, Snapchat is the most popular app for teens. Anecdotally, teens in my life tell me they don’t text each other anymore; they Snap. But is Snapchat safe for teens? Let’s take a look.
Snapchat is a photo- and video-centric social media platform. Users can:
My AI, Snapchat’s AI chatbot, is turned on by default, leaving teens exposed to privacy concerns such as targeted ads and stored chats. Snapchat has added filters for teens using My AI since its initial messy launch, but the possibility of inappropriate responses remains.
The Drug Enforcement Agency has identified Snapchat as a platform where criminal drug networks operate. Teens have died after purchasing drugs laced with fentanyl through Snapchat, and the company faces dozens of lawsuits from families.
Snapstreaks, disappearing content, and infinite scroll put teen users at risk of addictive behavior. The company faces numerous ongoing lawsuits alleging that Snapchat is not only aware of this risk, but that its product is designed to drive compulsive use by minors.
Snapchat’s filters and editing tools let users finesse their appearance to such a drastic degree that it’s greatly altered the way teens — particularly girls — view beauty standards, negatively impacting their happiness and self-esteem.
Snapchat has enhanced protections for teens, including newly released safety measures for users 13–15. Highlights include:
Snapchat offers these parental controls through Family Center:
Unfortunately, Snapchat’s Family Center only shows you who your child has been chatting with and how often, not the content of their messages.
Most third-party parental monitoring apps don’t work with Snapchat on Apple devices, but BrightCanary has you covered. You can use BrightCanary to view everything your child types on Snapchat (and all platforms). You’ll also get customizable, real-time alerts to any red flags.
U.S. users must be 13 to use Snapchat.
Users must self-attest their date of birth, but Snapchat has no additional age verification, and it’s easy for kids to fib about their age.
Just because your child can use Snapchat, doesn’t mean they should.
Common Sense Media advises teens to wait until at least 16 before using Snapchat, which is older than their recommendation for other social media platforms. They cite disappearing messages and the app's reputation for sexting, among other concerns.
After years of reviewing and writing about social media, I agree: Snapchat isn’t safe for 13-year-olds. The platform has made progress toward safety, but the remaining risks are simply not worth it. It’s best to wait.
If you decide to let your child use Snapchat, use these tips to help them do so more safely:
Snapchat’s teen safety features and parental controls allow for a reasonably locked-down experience, but remaining risks such as unhealthy beauty standards, addiction risk, and difficulty monitoring their use make it unsafe for teens under 16.
If your child uses Snapchat, you should set up parental controls, explain the risks, and monitor their use with BrightCanary.
Snapchat’s My Eyes Only is a feature you’ve likely never heard of, but really should know about. That’s because your child could be using it to hide things from you. Here’s everything you need to know about the feature.
Snapchat’s My Eyes Only feature is a passcode-protected vault where a user can privately store Snaps or Stories. Only photo Snaps and video Snaps shorter than 10 seconds can be moved to My Eyes Only.
Before we get into why you should be concerned about My Eyes Only, let’s take a look at how it functions.
If your child uses My Eyes Only, they could be doing so for non-worrisome reasons, like wanting to show a friend their memories, but not all their memories, or a developmentally appropriate desire for privacy. But it also could be a big reason for concern.
Snapchat is already an inherently difficult platform for parents to monitor because, by default, messages disappear after just 24 hours.
My Eyes Only further complicates the issue. Snapchat and other social media platforms limit what images child monitoring apps like BrightCanary can access, meaning you’ll need to also use digital check-ins to monitor Snapchat images.
The problem is, most parents don’t know about My Eyes Only, making it an easy hiding place.
I don’t want to freak you out, but it’s worth the thought experiment of playing out the worst-case scenario. One thing a kid might store in My Eyes Only are sexts or AI-generated nudes.
The legal and technical details are complicated, but under certain circumstances, law enforcement may be able to access items stored in My Eyes Only.
Nude images of minors, even when they’re generated by AI, are illegal under federal law. State laws vary, but kids have been charged with both misdemeanors and felonies. If found guilty, depending on the state, they may be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of their lives.
Snapchat's My Eyes Only lets kids hide photos and videos behind a passcode, out of reach of parental monitoring apps. Using it could be an innocent, age-appropriate bid for privacy, but it could also signal trouble. Kids can use My Eyes Only to hide risky content, including nude images which can carry legal consequences, even for minors.
To mitigate the risks, talk openly with your child about your concerns, set clear expectations for their behavior on Snapchat, and monitor their use with BrightCanary.
