Kansas AG wants parental control over TikTok, Snapchat

KANSAS (KSNT) - Forty-four attorneys general, including Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, are urging social media platforms TikTok and Snapchat to give parents more control over the increasingly popular apps.

The attorneys general recently wrote a letter to the apps asking them to take steps to give parents more control over what their children are seeing.

“Parental control apps can alert parents or schools to messages and posts on your platforms that have the potential to be harmful and dangerous,” Schmidt and the other attorneys general wrote. “Apps can also alert parents if their child manifests a desire for self-harm or suicide. On other platforms where these apps are allowed to operate appropriately, parents have received notifications of millions of instances of severe bullying and hundreds of thousands of self-harm situations, showing that these apps have the potential to save lives and prevent harm to our youth.”

Schmidt admitted that apps like TikTok and Snapchat are using some content moderation, but does not believe those always offer sufficient enough protection for those most vulnerable against online threats. The Kansas Attorney General would like parents to have a greater ability to monitor and moderate content involving their children.

To read the letter written to Snapchat and TikTok, see below: