How do I stop my child sharing their location on Snapchat?

To stop your child sharing their location on Snapchat, open Snap Map with them and turn on Ghost Mode, which hides them from everyone on the map. If they’d rather keep sharing with a few close friends, choose Select Friends instead of “My Friends”. Then back it up on the phone itself by changing Snapchat’s location permission to Never, or at least While Using the App. It takes a couple of minutes, and it works best done together rather than behind their back.

The steps below come from Snapchat’s, Apple’s and Google’s current help pages. Apps change their menus fairly often, so if something looks different on your child’s phone, check the linked page.

What Snap Map actually shares

Snap Map is the map screen inside Snapchat. It shows where your friends are, using their Bitmoji (their cartoon avatar), and it shows public Snaps posted from places nearby. Webwise explains that a user’s location updates while they’re using the app.

The good news is that sharing is opt-in. Snapchat says location sharing is off by default, and that teens can only share their location with people who are accepted friends, never with strangers who aren’t on their friends list (Snap). The catch is that many teens switch it on to see where their friends are and then forget about it, or add friends they don’t really know in real life.

The three choices are (Webwise):

• Only Me (Ghost Mode): nobody else sees their location on the map.
• My Friends: everyone on their friends list can see them, including anyone they add later.
• Select Friends: only the people they pick can see them.

As Webwise points out, a location shared every day quickly reveals regular places like home and school. That’s the real reason to check this setting, not panic.

How to turn on Ghost Mode

Snapchat’s own help page gives these steps (Snapchat Support):

1. Open Snapchat and go to the Map.
2. Tap the gear icon to open Map Settings. Snapchat currently places it in the bottom right corner; older guides say top right.
3. Turn on Ghost Mode.
4. Choose how long it should last: 3 hours, 24 hours or Until Turned Off. For a child, pick Until Turned Off, otherwise sharing comes back on its own when the timer ends.

Two things to know. First, Ghost Mode hides your child from other people, but their location is still shared with Snap itself. Second, Snaps your child submits to the map can still appear there whatever their location setting (Snapchat Support). So it’s worth a quick word about not posting public Snaps from home or school.

If your teen really wants to share with friends, the Australian eSafety Commissioner suggests Select Friends with just close friends and family, rather than everyone on their list (eSafety). That’s a reasonable middle ground for an older teen.

Back it up in the phone’s settings

Snapchat’s setting can be changed by anyone holding the phone, so it helps to set the phone’s own location permission for the app too.

iPhone or iPad (Apple):

1. Open Settings and tap Privacy & Security, then Location Services.
2. Scroll down and tap Snapchat.
3. Choose Never to stop Snapchat using location at all, or While Using the App so it can’t use it in the background.
4. If you leave it on, you can also turn off Precise Location, so the app only gets a rough area rather than an exact spot.

Android with Google Family Link (Google):

1. Open Family Link and choose your child.
2. Go to Screen time > Time limits > App limits and select Snapchat.
3. Tap App details, then Permissions, and turn off location.

Family Link also lets you decide who can grant permissions in the future. Under Controls > Signed-in devices, pick the device, then App permissions, choose a permission and select Only parents. Google notes this doesn’t remove permissions already granted, so do step 3 as well. Google also warns that turning a permission off can stop some app features working.

If you haven’t set up the wider controls yet, our guides to Screen Time on an iPhone and Family Link on Android walk you through them.

Want to know where they are? There’s a better way

Some parents keep Snap Map on precisely so they can see where their teen is. Snapchat has a tidier option for that inside Family Center, its parental tools. Once you and your teen are linked, you can send a request to see their live location and share yours back. Your teen has to accept, and you can choose to be told when they arrive at or leave up to three places, such as home or school (Snap).

To set up Family Center, you need your own Snapchat account and to be friends with your teen on it. Then search for “Family Center” in the app (or find it in Settings), invite your teen, and they tap Accept (Snapchat). Family Center also shows you who’s on their friends list and who they’re chatting with, though not what’s in their messages.

That way your teen can stay in Ghost Mode for everyone else, while still sharing with you. If you’re still deciding whether your child should be on Snapchat at all, our guide to what age children can join TikTok, Snapchat or Instagram covers the official ages and Irish rules.

Talk it through, don’t just switch it off

Teens often use Snap Map for good reasons: meeting up, checking a friend got home. If the setting just vanishes, they may turn it back on. eSafety suggests talking about both sides: the benefits, and the risk of sharing a real-time location with people they don’t know or trust (eSafety). Webwise adds that it’s worth looking through the friends list together and removing anyone they don’t know in real life (Webwise).

A simple way in: open your own phone’s map app and ask, “Who do you think can see where you are right now?” Then check together.

What to do next

• Sit down with your child’s phone this week and open Snap Map together. Turn on Ghost Mode set to “Until Turned Off”, or switch to Select Friends with a handful of close friends.
• Change Snapchat’s location permission on the phone to Never or While Using the App, and turn off Precise Location on an iPhone.
• Go through the friends list together and remove anyone they haven’t met in person.
• If you want to see their location, set up Family Center and use its location sharing instead of Snap Map, so only family can see where they are.