When I joined Snap five years ago, after more than two decades in safety in the tech industry, I was drawn to the company’s unique vision. Unlike traditional social media platforms that prioritize public virality, Snapchat was built to be a place for real friends to communicate authentically and privately. This foundational difference has shaped the additional progress in safety that we’ve made and the related initiatives we’ve launched during my tenure. As I mark this milestone, I want to look back at how we’ve evolved our defenses to help protect the most important aspect of our platform: our community.

When it comes to identifying and addressing illegal and potentially harmful content, we’ve made steady progress. More than 90% of enforcement actions against the most severe content and behavior (on platform surfaces other than Chat) now leverage our own systems, rather than relying solely on user reports. We also continue to strengthen the measurement, testing, and review processes that help us regularly evaluate and improve these systems.

Our approach combines detection and enforcement now with even more protections built directly into the product experience itself.  For instance, in 2024, we launched in-app warnings that alert teens in real-time when they receive a message from someone with whom they do not share mutual friends, or from a region that is outside their traditional circles—signals that may indicate potential scamming activity. These interventions are designed not only to interrupt risky interactions, but also to help users make safer decisions in the moment. Since launch, we have delivered billions of conversation warnings, resulting in millions of blocks.

We have also developed tools to help parents, caregivers, and other trusted adults support teens’ safety on Snapchat, and one of our most significant milestones was launched in 2022. Family Center provides visibility into whom teens are messaging while respecting the privacy of the teens’ conversations themselves. By showing parents and caregivers who their teens are communicating with—without revealing the content—helps create opportunities for meaningful dialogue about digital safety at home.

Still, safety cannot be fashioned in isolation. We restructured our global Safety Advisory Board (SAB) in 2022 and we are doing so again five years later to help ensure we are receiving rigorous and diverse expert feedback. Eager to harness the all-important youth voice, we launched our teen Council for Digital Well-Being program in early 2024, with an inaugural cohort of 18 teens from 12 U.S. states who helped us to better understand and appreciate the unique challenges facing Generation Z. A year later, we extended to cohorts in Australia and across Europe and the UK before selecting a second U.S. cohort earlier this year. 

Our commitment to data-driven safety is best exemplified by our Digital Well-Being Index (DWBI). This annual research project, now in its fifth and final year, measures the overall online psychological well-being of thousands of teens and young adults across six countries, not specific to any one platform. By sharing these platform-agnostic findings publicly, we aim to provide a “pulse check” for the entire tech ecosystem, highlighting newer risks like potentially harmful AI-generated content and financially motivated sextortion. After we reveal the Year 5 results on Safer Internet Day in February, we plan to evolve this research to examine an emerging aspect of well-being: “mattering” and explore what it means to “matter” to the digital communities in which we belong and participate.

The online risk landscape is constantly shifting, and we have brought significant company resources to bear against the most acute threats. We remain focused on combating illicit drug activity, sexual extortion, and all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA). Through strong policies, innovative proactive detection methods, in-app tools, and awareness-raising and educational efforts, we are working to prevent and deter illegal or potentially harmful content and behavior from occurring on Snapchat. 

In 2025, we took a bold step with our U.S. release of The Keys, an interactive online safety learning program designed specifically for teens and their parents. The Keys doesn’t just offer tips and conversation starters, but delves into some of the most serious risks teens may face online today: the consequences of taking and sharing nudes and intimate images, cyberbullying and harassment, sexual extortion, and communications about fentanyl and counterfeit pills. We have since released The Keys in Australia and the UK, and other regions and geographies, including Europe, are coming soon.

Most notably, we have spent more than two years engaged in an ongoing recalibration effort with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) with the aim of improving the value and actionability of the reports of suspected CSEA sent to law enforcement. By refining our reporting protocols and enhancing our data-sharing—including details like source ports and upload IPs—we have sought to significantly increase the actionability of our CyberTips for authorities. We have received positive feedback from Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforces and we remain committed to this effort. With respect to our CyberTips, we want law enforcement to confidently pursue reports from Snap because they know our reports can be consistently relied upon as actionable, valuable, and thorough. And, our hope remains that those efforts will prompt a corresponding uptick in related arrests and convictions across the globe.

Our work continues to extend beyond our own app. We maintain extensive engagement with external groups, from the Technology Coalition, WeProtect Global Alliance, INHOPE, and StopNCII to the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), Thrive, The Alliance to Prevent Drug Harms, and Song for Charlie. This collaborative spirit was also evident in our 2026 joint statement with other industry leaders affirming our commitment to minor safety in the EU, despite the April 3 expiration of the ePrivacy Directive derogation. We have also been staunch supporters of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Know2Protect and Pledge2Protect campaigns to fight CSEA and related crimes. We remain eager to collaborate and partner with those willing to engage thoughtfully and constructively on such challenging whole-of-society issues.   

As I look ahead to the next five years, my passion for safety and protecting teens and young people online is undiminished. We know our work may never be done; as long as criminals and bad actors look for ways to exploit technology and harm others, we will be there to build the walls higher and the gates stronger, working to mitigate risk, reduce harm, and prevent recurrence. We remain determined to make Snapchat the safest, most delightful platform for connecting with friends and celebrating the meaningful moments in life. Thank you for being a part of this journey.

– Jacqueline Beauchere, Global Head of Platform Safety, Snap Inc.