Snapchat is updating its parental control features to give parents more detailed information about who their kids are connecting with in the app and which features they use the most. The app's Family Center already gives parents visibility into their child's friend list, but it will now surface contextual details when a new friend is added.

For example, the feature could highlight that the two share mutual friends or have each other's contact info saved in their phones. It could also indicate that they are classmates if both users have joined the same in-app “community.” If the two have no commonalities, then that could be a sign for a parent to "start a productive conversation," Snap says. 

The company has long been criticized for making it too easy for teenagers to talk to strangers. The issue has come up in safety-related lawsuits, including an ongoing case brought by New Mexico's Attorney General. Snap says that adding additional "trust signals" to its parental control features "make it easier for parents to understand new connections and have greater confidence that their teen is chatting with someone they know in real life."

The update is also adding more granular stats about how exactly teens are spending their time in the app. Family Center's screen time dashboard now includes a breakdown of how much of their time spent in the app is in its messaging, camera, map or shortform video features. It will still be up to parents to decide what, if any, limits they want to put on their teens. But at a time when there's increasing conversation around banning teens from social media entirely, having access to more stats could better help parents understand their kids' relationship with Snapchat.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/snapchat-gives-parents-more-info-on-who-their-kids-are-talking-to-120000077.html?src=rss

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The Federal Trade Commission lost its antitrust case against Meta last year, but the regulator hasn't given up on its attempts to punish the social media company for its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. The FTC is appealing a ruling last year in which a federal judge found that the government hadn't proven that Meta is currently operating as a monopoly. 

"Meta has maintained its dominant position and record profits for well over a decade not through legitimate competition, but by buying its most significant competitive threats," the FTC's Bureau of Competition Director Daniel Guarnera said in a statement. "The Trump-Vance FTC will continue fighting its historic case against Meta to ensure that competition can thrive across the country to the benefit of all Americans and U.S. businesses.”

The FTC originally filed antitrust charges against Facebook in 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term in office. The government argued that by acquiring apps it once competed with, Instagram and WhatsApp, the company had depressed competition in the space and ultimately hurt consumers. A trial last year saw testimony from several current and former executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former COO Sheryl Sandberg, who spoke at length about the pressure to compete with TikTok. 

US District Judge James Boasberg was ultimately persuaded by Meta’s arguments, writing that the success of YouTube and TikTok prevented Meta from currently "holding a monopoly" even if the company had acted monopolistically in the past. If the FTC had won, it could have tried to force Meta to undo its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. Should it be successful in its appeal, that remedy could once again be on the table.

News of the FTC's plan to appeal is also a blow to Zuckerberg, who has spent the last year courting Trump and hyping Meta's plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on AI infrastructure in the United States. In a statement, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that the original ruling was "correct," and that "Meta will remain focused on innovating and investing in America."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-ftc-isnt-giving-up-on-its-antitrust-case-against-meta-225020769.html?src=rss

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