Kissimmee police warn parents of Snapchat GPS tracker

KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Kissimmee Police Department is warning parents to be aware of a new feature added to the Snapchat application.

The new Snap Map feature allows for a user's friends to track their exact location. The feature also gives users an option to share videos with strangers.

Kissimmee police are advising parents to make sure the "ghost mode" setting is active to prevent their child from being tracked by the GPS software.

"If you pay for that phone, you have every right to be looking in that phone, and making sure that the settings are correct, so your children are safe," said Stacie Miller with the Kissimmee Police Department. "If they can look up any video that's been posted a school, they can find just about anything on these apps."

Kissimmee police said that oftentimes, teenagers don't know every person they add as friends on Snapchat, so checking your child's privacy settings is critical.

[Click here to find out how to disable Snap Map feature]

"It's scary for obvious reasons," said parent Wolfgang Leitao. "I mean, if kids don't know about these things, they don't see things the way (we) do. So if a stranger, for example, can see that my daughter is right here at this park for whatever reason, if I were not to be present, that's a big danger."

Snapchat said the software is aimed at helping close friends stay connected.

“The safety of our community is very important to us and we want to make sure that all Snapchatters, parents and educators have accurate information about how the Snap Map works," Snapchat representatives said in a statement. "With Snap Map, location-sharing is off by default for all users and is completely optional. Snapchatters can choose exactly who they want to share their location with, if at all, and can change that setting at any time. It’s also not possible to share your location with someone who isn’t already your friend on Snapchat, and the majority of interactions on Snapchat take place between close friends.”


About the Author:

Troy graduated from California State University Northridge with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication. He has reported on Mexican drug cartel violence on the El Paso/ Juarez border, nuclear testing facilities at the Idaho National Laboratory and severe Winter weather in Michigan.