Today is international Safer Internet Day (SID), an annual event dedicated to people coming together around the world to make the internet safer and healthier for everyone, especially young people. SID 2022 marks 19 straight years of Safer Internet Day celebrations, and the world is again rallying around the theme, “Together for a better internet.”

At Snap, we’re taking this opportunity to highlight the benefits and importance of letting us know when you see something on Snapchat that may be of concern to you. Snapchat is about sharing and communicating with close friends, and we want everyone to feel safe, confident and comfortable sending Snaps and Chats. Still, there may be times when people may share content or behave in a way that conflicts with our Community Guidelines.

When it comes to staying safe online, everyone has a role to play, and we want all Snapchatters to know that reporting abusive or harmful content and behaviour – so that we can address it – improves the community experience for everyone. In fact, this is one of the most important things Snapchatters can do to help keep the platform free of bad actors and harmful content.

Reporting reluctance

Research shows young people may be unwilling to report content or behaviours for a variety of reasons. Some of these may be rooted in social dynamics, but platforms can also do a better job of debunking certain myths about reporting to foster comfort in contacting us. For example, in November 2021, we learned that just over a third of young people surveyed (34%) said they worry what their friends will think if they take action against bad behaviour on social media. In addition, almost one in four (39%) said they feel pressure not to act when someone they personally know behaves badly. These findings come from Managing the Narrative: Young People’s Use of Online Safety Tools, conducted by Harris Insights and Analytics for the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) and sponsored by Snap. 

The FOSI research polled several cohorts of teens, aged 13 to 17, and young adults, aged 18 to 24, in the U.S. In addition to the quantitative components, the survey sought participants’ general views on reporting and other topics. One comment from an 18-year-old summed up a number of young people’s perspectives, “I guess I didn’t think the offence was extreme enough to report.” 

Fast Facts about reporting on Snapchat

The FOSI findings suggest possible misconceptions about the importance of reporting to platforms and services in general. For Snapchatters, we hope to help clear those up with this handful of Fast Facts about our current reporting processes and procedures. 

• What to report:  In the conversations and Stories portions of Snapchat, you can report photos, videos and accounts; in the more public Discover and Spotlight sections, you can report content. 

• How to report:  Reporting photos and videos can be done directly in the Snapchat app (just press and hold on the content); you can also report content and accounts via our Support Site (simply complete a short webform).  

• Reporting is confidential:  We don’t tell Snapchatters who reported them.

• Reports are vital:  To improve the experiences of Snapchatters, reports are reviewed and actioned by our safety teams, which operate around the clock and around the globe. In most instances, our teams action reports within two hours. 

• Enforcement can vary:  Depending on the type of Community Guidelines or Terms of Service violation, enforcement actions can range from a warning, up to and including account deletion. (No action is taken when an account is found not to have violated Snapchat’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.) 

We’re always looking for ways to improve, and we welcome your feedback and input. Feel free to share your thoughts with us using our Support Site webform. 

To commemorate Safer Internet Day 2022, we suggest all Snapchatters review our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service to brush up on acceptable content and conduct. We’ve also created a new reporting Fact Sheet that includes a helpful FAQ, and we updated a recent “Safety Snapshot” episode on reporting. Safety Snapshot is a Discover channel that Snapchatters can subscribe to for fun and informative safety- and privacy-related content. For some added enjoyment to mark SID 2022, check out our new global filter, and look for additional improvements to our in-app reporting features in the coming months.    

New resource for parents 

Finally, we want to highlight a new resource we’re offering for parents and caregivers. In collaboration with our partners at MindUp: The Goldie Hawn Foundation, we’re pleased to share a new digital parenting course, “Digital Well-Being Basics,” which takes parents and caregivers through a series of modules about supporting and empowering healthy digital habits among teens. 

We look forward to sharing more of our new safety and digital well-being work in the coming months. In the meantime, consider doing at least one thing this Safer Internet Day to help keep yourself and others safe. Making a personal pledge to report would be a great start! 

- Jacqueline Beauchere, Global Head of Platform Safety