Is Snapchat AI safe for kids? A parent’s guide to My AI (and how to turn it off)

Snapchat’s My AI is a chatbot pinned to the top of the app’s chat feed that answers questions, gives recommendations, and chats back like a friend. It is generally not considered safe for unsupervised use by kids: it is powered by the same technology as ChatGPT, it can give inaccurate or age-inappropriate answers, and it collects data from your child’s conversations. The good news is that you can unpin, clear, or limit it in a few taps — and this guide walks you through exactly how.

What is My AI on Snapchat?

My AI is Snapchat’s built-in artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. Snapchat rolled it out in 2023 and gradually pushed it to most users worldwide, pinning it to the top of the chat screen by default — above messages from actual friends.

Under the hood, My AI runs on OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology with, in Snapchat’s words, “additional safety enhancements and controls” built on top. In practice that means it behaves like a general-purpose chatbot: you can ask it for advice, homework help, restaurant suggestions, or just conversation, and it answers instantly in a friendly, human-sounding voice. Snapchat+ subscribers can also exchange images with it and have it generate pictures.

Two things make My AI different from a chatbot your child might open on purpose, like Character AI or ChatGPT. First, it lives inside an app teens already use constantly, so there is no separate download or decision — it is simply there. Second, it is designed to feel like a friend, which is precisely the quality child-development researchers worry about most.

Is Snapchat AI safe for kids?

Short answer: My AI is safer than some standalone “companion” chatbots, but it is still not designed for children, and independent testing keeps surfacing real risks. Snapchat itself describes the feature as experimental and warns that its safeguards “may not always be successful.” Here are the risks parents should weigh.

1. It can give inaccurate or inappropriate advice. In a widely cited 2023 test, a Washington Post columnist posing as a 15-year-old got tips from My AI on masking the smell of alcohol and marijuana (Fowler, 2023). Researchers at the Center for Humane Technology, posing as a 13-year-old, were given advice about meeting an adult the child had described as 18 years older (Center for Humane Technology, 2023). Because chatbots generate answers by predicting plausible text rather than verifying facts, they can also simply be wrong — a reason to keep talking with kids about media literacy.
   
2. Its guardrails can be bypassed. Snapchat trains My AI to refuse violent, hateful, sexual, or dangerous content, but security researchers have shown the filters can be “jailbroken.” In 2025, Cybernews researchers coaxed My AI into describing how improvised weapons were historically made — content the bot is supposed to block (Cybernews, 2025). To its credit, My AI performed better than most: a 2026 study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN found that 8 of the 10 leading chatbots would help a teen account plan a violent attack, while My AI refused in about 54 percent of cases — though it rarely tried to actively talk the user out of it (Center for Countering Digital Hate, 2026).
   
3. It is built for engagement, not your child’s well-being. AI chatbots are designed to keep the conversation going with agreeable, validating, always-available responses. A 2025 national survey found that 72 percent of teens have used an AI companion and about half use one regularly (Common Sense Media, 2025). After a risk assessment with Stanford Medicine’s Brainstorm Lab, Common Sense Media concluded these products pose an “unacceptable risk” to anyone under 18 and that safety often degrades during the long, back-and-forth chats teens actually have (Common Sense Media, 2025). The concern is not only what a bot says once, but the parasocial attachment that builds over time — the same dynamic explored in our guide to AI girlfriends and boyfriends.
   
4. It collects data from your child’s chats. My AI conversations are not private. Snapchat harvests information from them to improve the product and personalize ads, so kids should never share confidential or sensitive details with the bot (more on this below).
   
5. It is not a substitute for a trusted adult. A 2025 assessment found that AI chatbots routinely miss warning signs of distress and keep offering general advice when a young person needs real help (Common Sense Media, 2025). That matters because a growing share of teens turn to AI for emotional and even mental-health support.
   

None of this means panic is warranted. It means My AI is an adult-grade tool living inside a kids’ app, and it deserves the same conversation, supervision, and boundaries you would apply to any other corner of Snapchat for kids.

Is Snapchat’s My AI private?

No — and this is one of the most important things for kids to understand. Anything typed to My AI can be stored and used by Snapchat to improve the app and target advertising. If your child has shared their location with Snapchat, My AI can also use approximate GPS data to answer prompts like restaurant recommendations, and it remembers past conversations to personalize future ones.

The practical rule to give your child is simple: treat My AI like a public message board, not a diary. No full names, no address or school, no photos of other people, and nothing they would not want a company — or an advertiser — to see.

<!– alt text: “Snapchat My AI privacy settings screen showing the Clear Data option” –>

How to turn off, remove, or delete My AI on Snapchat

Here is the most current process, and an important update: you no longer need a paid Snapchat+ subscription to clear My AI from your chat feed. Any user can now unpin or clear it directly. (Older guides — including Snapchat’s own help pages from 2023 and 2024 — still say removal is Snapchat+ only; that is out of date.)

A quick note on what each action actually does, because the words matter:

• Unpin keeps My AI in your chat list but stops it from sitting at the very top.
• Clear from chat feed removes the conversation thread from view. It does not delete the data your child has already shared.
• Delete My AI data is the separate step that actually erases stored conversation history from Snapchat’s servers.

How to unpin My AI from the chat feed

1. Swipe right from the camera screen to open the chat screen.
2. Press and hold on My AI.
3. Tap “Chat & Notification Settings.”
4. Tap “Unpin Conversation.”

How to clear (remove) My AI from the chat feed

1. Swipe right from the camera screen to open the chat screen.
2. Press and hold on My AI.
3. Tap “Chat & Notification Settings.”
4. Tap “Clear from Chat Feed,” then confirm.

My AI can reappear if your child searches for it or starts a new chat, so clearing is more of a tidy-up than a permanent block.

How to delete your My AI data

1. Open Settings (tap the profile icon, then the gear icon).
2. Scroll to “Privacy Controls.”
3. Tap “Clear Data,” then “Clear My AI Data,” and confirm.

Snapchat notes it can take up to 30 days for that data to be fully purged from its servers.

The honest limitation

For free accounts, there is still no single button that deletes My AI from the app forever the way you would remove a friend. You can hide it, clear it, and wipe its stored data, but the feature itself remains part of Snapchat. For families who want a Snapchat experience with no AI chatbot at all, the only complete option is to not use Snapchat — a reasonable choice for younger kids, and one many parents make.

What parents can actually do

You have more leverage than the app makes obvious. A few practical moves:

• Use Snapchat’s Family Center, but know its limits. Family Center lets you see who your teen is messaging and whether they are using My AI, but it will not show you the contents of those chats, and your teen has to opt in and can remove your access at any time. Our breakdown of what Snapchat’s parental controls can and can’t do walks through the setup and the gaps. It is also worth knowing the common ways kids work around parental controls so you are not caught off guard.
  
• Have the conversation first. Ask your child if they have noticed My AI, what they have asked it, and what they think of it. Curiosity beats interrogation. Kids who feel safe asking questions are far more likely to come to you when a chatbot says something strange or upsetting.
  
• Teach the “treat it like a stranger” rule. My AI is friendly by design, which is exactly why kids forget it is software owned by a company. Reinforce that it is not a friend, not a therapist, and not a reliable source of facts.
  
• Decide if the app is the right fit at all. Snapchat’s minimum age is 13, and Common Sense Media recommends 16+. If your child is younger, or simply is not ready for an app with a built-in AI chatbot, it is completely valid to wait.
  

Frequently asked questions

Can you turn off My AI on Snapchat? You cannot permanently delete My AI from a free Snapchat account, but any user can unpin it or clear it from the chat feed. To clear it, press and hold My AI, tap “Chat & Notification Settings,” then tap “Clear from Chat Feed” and confirm.

Do you need Snapchat+ to get rid of My AI? No. This used to require a paid Snapchat+ subscription, but Snapchat now lets any user unpin or clear My AI from the chat feed for free. Snapchat+ only adds early access to other features.

Is it safe to talk to Snapchat’s My AI? It is risky for kids to rely on it. My AI can give inaccurate or age-inappropriate answers, its safety filters can be bypassed, and it is not built to recognize when a young person is in distress. It is best used, if at all, with supervision and clear ground rules.

Does Snapchat’s My AI save your conversations? Yes. My AI stores past conversations and Snapchat uses that data to improve the product and personalize ads. You can erase it under Settings, then Privacy Controls, then “Clear My AI Data,” though full deletion can take up to 30 days.

Can My AI see your child’s location? Only if location sharing is turned on for Snapchat. When it is, My AI can use approximate GPS data to answer location-based prompts. You can turn this off in the app’s location settings.

What happened to Snapchat AI? My AI is still part of Snapchat. The wave of complaints in 2023, when the feature was forced to the top of everyone’s chat feed, pushed Snapchat to make it easier to unpin and clear, so the loudest backlash has faded even though the chatbot remains.

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References

Center for Countering Digital Hate. (2026). Killer apps: How AI chatbots are failing to stop teens planning violence. counterhate.com

Center for Humane Technology. (2023). Testing of Snapchat’s My AI with accounts registered to minors.

Common Sense Media. (2025). Talk, trust, and trade-offs: How and why teens use AI companions. commonsensemedia.org

Cybernews. (2025, October). Snapchat’s My AI can be manipulated into sharing harmful content. cybernews.com

Fowler, G. A. (2023, March 14). Snapchat tried to make a safe AI. But tests reveal its conversations can be unsafe for teens. The Washington Post.