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New Snapchat feature has parents on edge

Posted at 1:02 PM, Jun 28, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-28 13:02:32-04

Atlanta, GA (WGCL) – A new feature on the popular social media app “Snapchat” that can pinpoint a users exact location has parents concerned about their children’s safety.

Snapmap allows users to track down another user’s location, right down to the street in which they’ve made their last post. You also don’t have to be friends with that user in order to access the information.

A new feature on the social media site “Snapchat” that can pinpoint a users exact location.

There is a way for you to control the feature and that’s by putting Snapchat into “Ghost Mode”. In order to do this, touch the selfie feature on the camera and as you zoom out, it gives you the option of changing who can see your location.

The Gwinnett County Police Department, for one, is trying to get the warning out to parents about this.

“Kids are very sneaky even if you tell them you are not allowed on social media,” said Michele Pinera with the Gwinnett County Police Department. “As a parent, you have to be a snoop. You have to go into their computer and you have to take their phone. It is essentially the parent’s phone and you have to go in there and see exactly what their doing.”

The new features are making some parents CBS46 talked with very nervous.

“It’s very scary because predators have the same technology as our kids so unless parents do something to limit that, predators have access to your children,” said parent Jennifer Pozolopez. “I don’t need for everyone to know her every move. Just the thought of that makes me really nervous.”

Pozolopez reached out to representatives at Snapchat and they told her if someone chooses to share their location with all of their friends on Snapchat, the site will remind them of that choice periodically to make sure they are still comfortable with the feature.