‘Snap Map’ is a feature within Snapchat that allows you to see all of your friends’ locations at once which is extremely harmful and dangerous for anybody who uses it. 

“Snap Map Tracking” is a way of stalking in which you watch where someone’s exact position is. One danger of Snap Map tracking is that rapists or pedophiles can stalk your exact location and track you down. They can see when you’re alone or where you live. A case of this has been reported where allegedly a group of out-of-area teens found the location of a party and crashed it. The alleged assault of the 16-year-old girl followed. 

Another danger of this is the fear of missing out (FOMO). This comes from being able to see when everybody is together at once. You could be having a good day, but when you click on Snap Map and see that all your friends are hanging out, your day could be ruined. 

Another harmful feature is the ability to see the last time your friend was active on Snapchat, so if you’re texting them and they don’t reply, you can see that they were on Snapchat not too long ago. You could feel ignored and it can hurt your mental health. 

Teenagers think it is helpful to see where your friend’s locations are. Although it is helpful, there are safer ways to see. You can use apps like Life360 or Findmy to see where your friends are. 

Just keep your location off. If you really want to see your friend’s location use Life360 or Findmy to be more contained.