Talk to your teen about Snapchat Ghost Mode, and follow their time

When activated, Snap Map allows Snapchat users to share their location with their Snapchat friends. (Photo : Maya Castro, Special for USA TODAY (1945)

] Forget Facebook and Twitter – Snapchat is the place of trampling digital where all the kids go out these days. A new study of the The Associated Press found that while 66% of teens use Facebook, and 47% use Twitter, a 75% use Snapchat. It's incredibly popular, and if you have a teenage son or daughter, there's a good chance they'll use Snapchat on their smartphone.

A new feature in the messaging app raises a lot of parents' eyebrows, and we've had a lot of # 39 other issues related to Snapchat and digital parenting, too. So, sit back, here's what you need to know, especially if you have let your kids have total control over their application habits.

Snapchat snap map enabled on the left, and with ghost mode on the right (Photo: Maya Castro / Special for the USA today)

Card continues -> Fashion ghost

The new feature of Snapchat is calling the [Snap Map] it's like a funky GPS locator for all Snapchat friends of your children, when they activate it for the first time, they ask if they want to share their location with all their friends, some of their friends, or keep them private with the 'Ghost Mode' . The unsuspecting teens may be tempted to let the world know where they hang out, but parents know better. Twenty-five try to find a party on a Saturday night, but why does the world need to know where your teen spends the afternoon – or even more bizarre – where he lives?

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How to Activate "Ghost Mode" on Snapchats Map (Photo: Jennifer Jolly / USA Today Special)

Snapchat's answer to this is that the only people who can see the location of your children on a map are the people with who they are friends. So, the first question is this: has your teen ever loved anyone who does not know it? The answer is often "yes", which leads to a potential for goose bumps. According to Snapchat, " Snaps you submit to Our History may still appear on the map, regardless of the location parameter chosen! are not Snaps sent between friends, but those shared with the Snapchat community. "

Feeling like you're going to be there. to wipe your children? out of the map, so to speak? Here's how they can enter "ghost mode", and control exactly who can see where they are. First, press the small wheel icon in the upper right corner and then scroll to where it says "Who can … See my position." Tap on it, and click on "Ghost Mode" so that it turns on.

Now your teen can navigate the map without showing his own location to a whole bunch of people who should not know it in the first place.

How to enable" Ghost Mode "on Snapchats. (Photo: Jennifer Jolly / USA Special TODAY)

For more information: USA TODAY'S HUI College on How to Control Who Can See You on Snap Maps

On Facebook, my mom-friend Tamara recently raised another question that we received a lot late ly, "What are the good applications to track the time spent on a phone? I want to help my son become aware of Snapchat's sucking hours. "

Our best advice for keeping a growing Snapchat addiction in check without crossing the line by being an overprotective parent Join Snapchat yourself

OK, OK, I know this is probably not what you expected but keep an open mind because there are a number of benefits here.Children love Snapchat because it's like a secret language that they think you do not talk about In fact, an extensive investigation on teenagers Snapchat by Variety shows that nearly a third of children Using the application prefer because, and I quote, "My parent s do not use it. "

Create a Snapchat Profile and befriending your child lets him know that you are not as oblivious as they might think, but there is an even better reason to to join. Once you are Snapchat friends with your teenager, you can actually see the exact number of flashes that they send and receive. By tapping on a friend's name and then opening his Snapchat profile on the app, a small counter will appear below his name that goes up whenever he sends or receives a cliche. And there is the added bonus of being able to browse your teen's "Stories" Snapchat, which is an archive of all the snapshots they send.

Checking Maya's Scoring Score to see how active it was on Snapchat (Photo : Jennifer Jolly / Special for USA Today)

Joining Snapchat is really the easiest way to keep an eye on Snapchat habits of your children without being "lame", but if you are less concerned about the content they send and more concerned about their eyes glued to this small screen for hours on end, an application might be the solution.

I like the app called Time for this. It is an iPhone application time tracking tool that only measures the time spent by someone on his phone and what he does with it. It's the ultimate counter-argument every time your teenager insists that they're not taking advantage of their life on Snapchat, and you can point to specific numbers to define your own personal limits for how much it's too much. If your child has an Android phone, the BreakFree [19459] does pretty much the same thing, but adds in some practical tables and warning notifications when they use an app longer than they should be.

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Now may be a good time to follow the use of your smartphone by teenagers. (Photo: Handout)

If the simple follow-up and reminders are not enough to free your teen from Snapchat's hold, it's easy to move on to the next step MMGuardian for Android smartphones is like a parental guard dog that reports everything It also allows you to track SMS messages and calls, block numbers and even lock apps from their phone, which can be exaggerated depending on the situation, but it's a nice tool to have in your back pocket.

Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award winning technology collaborator and host of USA TODAY's TECH NOW digital video program. Email it to jj@techish.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenniferJolly.