Law Enforcement Warning Parents About Snapchat’s New Location Sharing Feature

CHARLOTTE, NC — If you’re a parent with a child who uses Snapchat, there’s new feature that is prompting warnings from law enforcement officials.

“Snap Map” is the latest feature pushed out in an update to the highly popular social media app. It allows the app to automatically connect to the phone’s GPS and visualizes the user’s exact location on a map.

While on the map, users can pinch the screen to zoom in and out on their friend’s location. You can even zoom in far enough to see the person’s exact location on a street layout.

With so many young people using the app, law enforcement officials are warning parents about this latest update. Officials are advising parents to set their child’s phone location to “Ghost Mode” so their location stays hidden.

Ghost mode can be set by going to selfie mode on the camera, zooming out, and then changing who can see your location when given the option. Note that this only works on the updated version of the app.

For more information on “Snap Map,” click here.