SnapChat

Snapchat introduced its Family Safety Hub on July 4, 2025, in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority and life coach Hala Kazim. The announcement occurred during a special event in the UAE that brought together parents, creators, and press to discuss platform safety initiatives. Fatal Al Melhi, director of special projects department at the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority, emphasized the collaboration's significance. "This feature is going to protect teenagers on this platform," Melhi stated during the launch event. The partnership stems from a children's digital well-being pact signed earlier this year between Snapchat and the authority. Summary Who: Snapchat, Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority, life coach Hala Kazim, Fatal Al Melhi (director of special projects), parents and teenagers using the platform What: Launch of Snapchat Family Safety Hub featuring comprehensive parental controls including friend monitoring, content restrictions, location sharing, AI chatbot controls, and confidential reporting systems When: July 4, 2025, during a special event in the UAE Where: United Arab Emirates, with collaboration between Snapchat's global platform and Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority Why: To enhance teenager safety on Snapchat by providing parents with oversight tools while maintaining privacy boundaries, addressing growing concerns about social media safety for minors and establishing government-industry

Livvy Dunne went viral last year for her dress at Michael Rubin’s White Party in the Hamptons. She’s back in the Hamptons again this year and first dropped a head-turning jean shorts fit. The 22-year-old Dunne has been doing that a lot lately with stunning looks since she finished her gymnastics career at LSU from her amazing “officially retired” dress, to her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit poses, to her runway dress side-by-side with Jordan Chiles, to her pool patriotic bikini on Memorial Day for a road trip with Pittsburgh Pirates boyfriend Paul Skenes. RELATED: Livvy Dunne shows off stunning view of ‘future home’ while rocking bikini She took to Snapchat to share some memories of last year’s famous Fourth of July party where her white dress blew up social media. Livvy Dunne/Snapchat Livvy Dunne/Snapchat RELATED: Livvy Dunne pays bonkers price for boyfriend’s Paul Skenes rare rookie card Well, she’s back at least in the Hamptons — possibly for another big Rubin party. She had to get there first, though, as she showed off a picture stuck in traffic. Livvy Dunne/Instagram Dunne made sure to show off her fire jean shorts fit, though, before taking that long car ride from the coast

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - Inside an Alachua County courtroom, an emotional Joel Searby was seen mouthing ‘I love you’ to his family moments after he received a 10-year prison sentence on child sex crimes charges. The victim was a 15-year-old boy who received dozens of sex-related Snapchat messages from Searby last year. “This progressed through the night and into the next day,” said Jay Blankenfeld, the victim’s father. Blankenfeld wanted to publicly share details of his son’s case to warn parents of the dangers of social media and the messages children receive from others. In Searby’s case, the victim was his neighbor. “The stuff he said he was planning to do to my son, I can’t read them all,” Blankenfeld told TV20. Searby’s nine-page arrest report details the conversation Searby had with the teen, some too explicit to show. Blankenfeld remembers pulling into his driveway, a few houses down from Searby, after getting the call from his wife about the nature of the messages. “I drove past their house before pulling into our driveway, and I looked over and his Suburban was sitting there, and I walked into the house, and my son received a picture from him, and he

California  + Bay Area  |  July 3, 2025 Snap Inc., the owner of multimedia messaging app Snapchat, is slated to fully occupy a 156,000-square-foot office building at 223 Mathilda Ave. in Sunnyvale that previously housed biotechnology company 23andMe, reported the Silicon Valley Business Journal. The lease agreement with landlord Spear Street Capital will take effect later this year, the Business Journal reported , citing CoStar News. Last month, Spear Street repurchased the property from San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Group for $87.75 million, paying nearly $100 million less than it sold the property for in 2019, the Business Journal reported. 23andMe leased the building in 2019, but got little use out of it after the COVID-19 pandemic left conventional work life in disarray, largely putting 223 Mathilda Ave. in a state of limbo. The personal genomics company subleased 17,000 square feet to cloud-computing startup CoreWeave in 2024, just six months before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Photo courtesy of The Smith Group. Inside The Story About Paul Bubny Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 16-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations

A mother claimed a 35-minute chat with a 'girl' on TikTok cost her son's life - when it turned out to be a cruel social media 'sextortion' plot that drove him to suicide. Morgan Moore, from El Dorado, Kansas, says her son Caleb Moore, 14, was 'flirting' with a person he believed was a 14-year-old girl on TikTok, before the pair moved the conversation to Snapchat. After the 'girl' allegedly sent him compromising photos of herself, Caleb sent over similar photos in return. Morgan, 33,  said 'she' then began to threaten Caleb and demanded he stump up a large amount of cash or they would leak his photos. In that moment Morgan believes her son felt like he had nowhere to turn and he shot himself. Morgan claimed Caleb's conversation with the sinister stranger saw her son's 'happiness and hope destroyed in 35 minutes'. Following his death, the 33-year-old claimed TikTok and Snapchat should have more effective monitoring on their platform to stop fraudulent accounts like this existing. The mother-of-five is now bravely sharing Caleb's tragic story to encourage parents to have 'constant' open conversations with their children to combat scams online and avoid the same thing happening to others. Morgan Moore, (right)

A 31-year-old Fargo man faces four counts of Gross Sexual Imposition for allegedly having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl. Abdallah Al Gburi was arrested June 25th after police found him shirtless in a car with the minor in a Lewis and Clark Elementary school parking lot around 11:18 p.m. Court documents show Al Gburi met the girl on Snapchat on June 21st and knew she was underage, telling police he thought she was 17. The victim told officers she had repeatedly informed him she was 14 years old through Snapchat messages. Initially, both denied sexual contact occurred, but during a follow-up interview on June 27th, the minor revealed they had engaged in sexual activity both that night and in previous encounters. Al Gburi acknowledged knowing the girl was underage and admitted to removing his shirt because “she likes that,” though he initially denied sexual contact with the victim.

Snapchat has reached a new usage milestone in India, with the app now up to 250 million Indian users. That means that India is now Snap’s biggest user market, with the nation making up more than a quarter of Snap’s overall audience. As per Snap: “ The India digital opportunity is massive, and Snapchat India is strategically poised to capitalise on this growing opportunity by bringing culturally relevant experiences to Indian audiences through local content initiatives, partnerships, and maintaining a dedicated focus on regional creators through Spotlight and Stories. ” In terms of audience specifics, Snapchat says that 90% of its Indian audience is aged between 13 and 34, while on usage, 80% of its Indian users engage with its AR elements daily. India is also Snap’s second-largest AR developer market. The app has been steadily growing in the Indian market for some time, really since the launch of its updated Android app back in 2019, which had been a point of controversy, in that Snap, for a long time, did not make Android connectivity a priority. Indeed, back in 2017, a former Snap employee claimed that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had specifically noted that he didn’t care about expansion

Snapchat is making a loud, vibrant statement with its latest out-of-home (OOH) campaign aimed squarely at advertisers. The messaging couldn’t be clearer: If you want to connect with Gen Z, Snapchat is the place to be. With the campaign slogan “It’s Time to Advertise on Snapchat,” the platform is urging brands and marketers to take action with punchy, attention-grabbing taglines like “DON’T CRY OVER POOR ENGAGEMENT. SNAP OUT OF IT.” and “GEN Z’S ATTENTION IS ON SNAPCHAT. BE THE CENTRE OF IT.” Ankit Goyle, Head of Marketing, Snapchat  – India, said, “‘It’s Time to Advertise on Snapchat’ campaign shows our commitment to helping brands connect with India’s Gen Z, who are shaping culture and the economy. The campaign is simple, straight forward, fun and really gets straight to the point on how to engage with this cohort. It’s a friendly nudge to rethink the old way of doing things and explore Snapchat that presents multi ad formats that are winning attention.”   Gen Z is more than just a demographic—they are culture drivers with an estimated spending power set to reach a staggering $2 trillion by 2035. In India alone, there are 377 million Gen Zers, making them the most influential

Local News Kingwood men accused of luring, assaulting teens via social media Arrest Crime Handcuffs (KPRC2/Click2Houston.com) Authorities have arrested two men accused of luring teenagers through social media app, Snapchat, and sexually assaulting them in Montgomery County earlier this month. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, on June 16, deputies responded to a report involving two 15-year-old juveniles who were allegedly lured to the New Caney ISD football stadium parking lot by individuals they met through Snapchat. Investigators say that when the teens arrived, the suspects displayed a firearm and sexually assaulted them inside a vehicle. After the incident, the victims immediately told their parents, who contacted law enforcement. The MCSO Special Victims Unit quickly launched an investigation. Detectives identified the suspects as 19-year-old Darville Reginald Allen and 20-year-old Abdul Saleem, both from Kingwood. Warrants were issued for their arrest. On June 30, Allen was taken into custody by the Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and members of the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offender Fugitive Task Force. Saleem was also arrested without incident. Both men were booked into the Montgomery County Jail and are charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. Allen’s bond was set at $150,000, while

A Boston police sergeant is facing several criminal charges, including four counts of rape of a child aggravated by age difference. According to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden, Paul Downey, 58, met a 14-year-old boy on March 26 on the Grindr dating app. After a conversation with the teen moved to the social media app Snapchat, the two discussed the boy performing a sexual act for $30, leading to a meetup in a parking lot near the South Bay mall, Hayden said.Something similar happened on May 11 with the same teen, who was offered $80 for another meetup involving sexual intercourse near the same parking lot near the South Bay mall, the district attorney's office confirmed.According to Hayden, an investigation into the alleged events confirmed Snapchat records that matched a username used by Downey and an IP address. Comcast records also matched Downey's phone number, home address and a "known City of Boston IP address."Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox responded to the allegations, saying there will be a thorough investigation into Downey's conduct. "These charges are obviously very troubling, and our thoughts are with any alleged victims," Cox said.Downey is also facing two counts of engaging in sexual conduct