Snapchat Begins Disabling Find Friends by Default for UK Children, Ofcom Says

Snapchat has begun disabling its Find Friends feature by default for child users in Britain, regulator Ofcom said on November 6, 2026, a step it described as important for reducing online grooming risk. Yahoo reported the regulator's statement.

How Snapchat's Find Friends Change Works

Find Friends helps users find and add new contacts. Ofcom said turning it off by default for children makes it harder for strangers to reach them on Snapchat, which the regulator counts among the largest and most popular online services used by children in Britain.

Ofcom said in May that Snapchat was used by 32% of children aged 8 to 12 in Britain, despite the platform's minimum age restriction of 13. Snapchat committed to the change in May and more recently told the regulator that effective age checks for under 18s should be in place by the end of the year. The platform did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Oliver Griffiths, director of Ofcom's Online Safety Group, said the change was "long overdue" and that the regulator would monitor Snapchat's rollout of the new protection this month. Ofcom has pressed major tech firms to introduce stronger anti-grooming measures and has said online grooming can have "devastating, lifelong consequences" for children. The regulator re-issued a warning to other tech companies failing to tackle grooming risks, saying they risked fines of up to 10% of their qualifying global revenue.

Snapchat's Scale in Britain

According to akta.pro company records, Snapchat is a social media and messaging application operated by Snap Inc. and delivered as a unified mobile app for consumer users. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, with an estimated revenue of $5 billion+ and a valuation estimate of $10 billion-$25 billion. Evan Spiegel is co-founder and chief executive officer, and Bobby Murphy is co-founder and chief technology officer. The same records list one funding round, a 2013-01 seed round with one investor.

Earlier Snapchat Safety and Legal Moves

On November 3, 2026, Snapchat launched a free 45-minute digital safety course for Canadian teens and parents, developed with Common Sense Media and Canadian partners, covering cyberbullying, harassment and illicit drug activity in English and French, iPhone in Canada reported. On October 21, 2026, Snapchat settled a civil lawsuit with a Georgia driver's family over a speed filter's alleged role in a 2015 crash, Yahoo reported. On October 19, 2026, more than 90 advocacy groups signed a letter urging Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube to adopt child safety protections Meta implemented after its $17.1 billion settlement, EIN Presswire reported.

What Ofcom Will Monitor Next

Ofcom said it would monitor Snapchat's rollout of the new protection this month. Snapchat told the regulator that effective age checks for under 18s should be in place by the end of the year.