The actual steps, app by app

Menu names below match Apple's current help documentation. If a label looks different, search Settings for the bolded words.

1. Cut an app's location access. Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services → tap the app → choose Never, Ask Next Time Or When I Share, While Using the App, or Always. Almost nothing needs “Always.”
2. Turn off Precise Location. Same screen, per app → toggle Precise Location off. The app then only sees a general area instead of your exact spot — enough for weather, not enough to find you.
3. Audit every app at once. The Location Services list itself shows every app you have ever given location to. Scroll the whole list. Anything you do not recognise, set to Never.
4. Stop the camera geotagging photos. Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera → Never.
5. Check Family Sharing separately. Settings › Family › Location Sharing — this is a different list from Find My. There is also an Automatically Share Location option that applies to anyone added to the family later.
6. Clear the log of where you have been. Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › System Services › Significant Locations → Clear History.
7. The emergency option: Safety Check. Settings › Privacy & Security › Safety Check. Emergency Reset stops all location and data sharing with everyone at once and prompts a password change. Manage Sharing & Access lets you revoke people and apps one at a time.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Fix app permissions. Settings › Location › App location permissions → pick an app → Allow all the time, Allow only while using the app, Ask every time, or Don't allow. Shortcut: long-press the app icon → App info → Permissions → Location.
2. Turn off precise location per app. On the same screen, Android lets you choose precise or approximate location. Approximate gives the app a rough area instead of your exact position.
3. Audit everything from one screen. Settings › Location › App location permissions sorts every app into Allowed all the time, Allowed only while in use, and Not allowed. Work down the first group first.
4. Check who you are sharing with in Google. Google location sharing stays off until you actively share with someone. To review: myaccount.google.com → People & sharing → Location Sharing → Manage Location Sharing → tap a person → Stop.
5. Turn off or auto-delete Timeline. Google app → profile icon → Manage Your Google Account → Data & Privacy → Timeline → toggle off, or set auto-delete to 3 months.
6. Camera geotags. On a Pixel: Camera app → Settings → More settings → turn off Save location. On a Galaxy: Camera app → Settings → General → turn off Location tags. On any other Android, denying the Camera app the location permission does the same job.
7. If your family uses Family Link. The Family Link app → Location tab shows what is being shared. Note that Family Link can only track Android phones and Fitbits — not iPhones or iPads.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

A photo can carry the exact spot it was taken, buried in the file. Turning the camera setting off protects future photos. These steps handle the ones already on your phone.

1. Stop it happening again first. iPhone: Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Camera → Never. Pixel: Camera → Settings → More settings → off Save location. Galaxy: Camera → Settings → General → off Location tags.
2. Strip one photo on iPhone. Photos app → open the photo → … → Adjust Location → No Location.
3. Strip it while sending on iPhone. Select the photo → Share → Options at the top → toggle Location off → Done. Then send.
4. On Android. Google Photos → open the photo → swipe up or tap i for details → if a location shows, tap it and remove it. Not every Android gallery app offers this; if yours does not, send the photo through an app that resizes it, which usually drops the data.
5. Easiest universal trick. Screenshot the photo and send the screenshot. A screenshot has no GPS data in it at all.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Instagram. Profile → ☰ menu → Settings and activity → Account privacy → toggle Private account → confirm Switch to private.
2. TikTok. Profile → ☰ → Settings and privacy → Privacy → toggle Private account.
3. X (Twitter). Tap your profile photo → Settings and privacy → Privacy and safety → under Audience and tagging → toggle Protect your posts.
4. Snapchat. There is no single private switch. What matters is Contact Me and View My Story — both covered in the Snapchat section below.
5. YouTube. A channel cannot be made private, only individual videos. YouTube Studio → Content → pick a video → Visibility dropdown → Private or Unlisted → Save.
6. Facebook. Also no single switch. Profile picture → Settings & privacy → Settings → Audience and visibility → then set each type of content separately.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

These parts of your account are usually visible even when your account is private. They are also the fastest way for a stranger to work out where you physically are on a weekday.

1. Take your school out of your bio. Mascot names, class year, and school initials all narrow you down to one building. “Northside '28” plus one photo is enough.
2. Take your team, club, and jersey number out. Public sports schedules mean a team name tells someone where you will be and when.
3. Take your town out. A first name plus a town is often enough to find a family in public records.
4. Look at your username itself. If your handle contains your full real name plus your birth year, that is a searchable identity, not a nickname.
5. Check your linked accounts. A link in your bio to another profile with looser settings undoes the work you just did on this one.
6. Look at your profile photo like a stranger would. A school uniform, a street sign, a house number, or a car plate in the background all give away location.
7. Changing a username costs you something. On Instagram your old handle is held for 14 days, then anyone can claim it, and old links to you break. On TikTok you can only change it once every 30 days, and a verified account may lose its badge. On Roblox it costs 1,000 Robux. So decide once rather than twice.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Instagram. Profile → ☰ → Settings and activity → under How others can interact with you → Messages and story replies → Message requests. Set requests from people you do not follow to go nowhere. There is a separate control for group message requests — set that too.
2. TikTok. If you are 13–15, direct messages are switched off entirely and cannot be turned on. At 16–17: Profile → ☰ → Settings and privacy → Privacy → Direct Message → set Others on TikTok to Don't receive, and consider doing the same for Potential connections.
3. Snapchat. Profile → gear → scroll to App & Privacy → Contact Me → choose Friends. The other option, Friends and Contacts, includes everyone in your phone's contact list.
4. Discord. Desktop: cogwheel bottom left → Content & Social → under Social permissions → toggle off Direct messages, and say yes when it asks whether to apply this to servers you are already in. Mobile: profile icon → cogwheel → Settings → Content & Social.
5. Discord friend requests. Same Content & Social screen → Friend Requests → there are three checkboxes: Everyone, Friends of Friends, and Server Members. Unticking all three stops every incoming request.
6. Discord image filtering. Same Content & Social screen → Sensitive Content Filters. If you are a teen, DMs from non-friends are blocked by default and DMs from friends are blurred, and you cannot switch these off. If a guide mentions Keep me safe, My friends are nice, or Do not scan, that guide is years out of date.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

A green dot tells anyone watching that you are awake, alone with your phone, and likely to reply. That is useful information to the wrong person.

1. Instagram. Profile → ☰ → Settings and privacy → Messages and story replies → turn off Show Activity Status.
2. WhatsApp. Settings → Privacy → Last seen and online → choose Nobody or My contacts.
3. Discord, overall status. Click your avatar bottom left → pick Invisible. You appear fully offline but can still message normally.
4. Discord, what you are playing. Cogwheel → Activity Privacy → turn off Share your activity with others. Also turn off Share your activity status by default when joining large servers.
5. Roblox. Settings → Privacy & content restrictions → Visibility & private servers → Visibility. Set Online Status and Show current experience to No one, and turn off Share activity updates.
6. Steam. Open your Friends list → next to your avatar, set your status to Invisible. You can still see friends and send messages.
7. Xbox. Microsoft's own page for this is called Choose who sees your Xbox activity → Manage your activity and online status → Configure your activity settings on the console. Follow the steps shown there, because Microsoft changes the on-screen wording fairly often. On the console it is usually your profile icon top left, then the status list.
8. PlayStation. On PS5: from the home screen select your profile → Online Status → Appear Offline. Two catches worth knowing: some games still show you as online inside the game itself, and people can still send you chat invites.
9. Snapchat. There is no separate online-status switch. Ghost Mode on Snap Map is the supported way to hide your presence, covered below.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

Most people are sharing live location with more accounts than they remember. Read the whole list once. Anything you cannot explain, turn off.

1. Apple Find My, one person. Find My → People tab → tap the name → scroll down → Stop Sharing My Location.
2. Apple Find My, everyone at once. Find My → Me tab → toggle off Share My Location.
3. Started from a text? Open that Messages conversation → tap the person's name → Stop Sharing. Contacts works too: tap the person → Stop Sharing My Location.
4. Google Maps. Profile picture → Location sharing → tap the person → Stop. Or from the web: myaccount.google.com → People & sharing → Location Sharing → Manage Location Sharing.
5. Snap Map. Snap Map → gear bottom right → Ghost Mode, or narrow it to Only These Friends…. Details in the Snapchat section.
6. Life360. To remove someone: Circle Switcher → pick the Circle → Settings top left → Circle Management → Delete Circle Members. To leave completely: Settings → Circle Management → Leave Circle → Yes.
7. When you do share, use a timer. Find My offers One Hour and Until End of Day instead of Indefinitely. Take the shortest one that works.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Instagram, one post. Open the post → Options (the …) → Edit → Remove next to the location → Done.
2. Instagram, in bulk. Settings and activity → Your Activity → Posts → filter or sort to find posts with a location → select several → remove. Worth doing once for your whole back catalogue.
3. TikTok. TikTok's help centre documents how to add a location before you post, but not how to take one off afterwards. Do not trust the “you have seven days to edit” advice floating around — TikTok does not say that anywhere. The move that definitely works is to delete the video and repost it without the tag.
4. Facebook. Go to the post → Options → Edit post → click the location → Remove → Next → Save. Locations attached to photos have to be edited in the phone app, not on a computer.
5. X (Twitter). X does not document any way to strip a location off a post that is already up. Turn off precise location under Settings and privacy → Privacy and Safety, and delete the post if the location has to go.
6. Do not forget your oldest posts. The riskiest tagged posts are usually the ones from two years ago that you have stopped thinking about.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

You do not need a menu for this one. Changing when you post removes the risk that no privacy setting can fully cover.

1. Post after you leave, not while you are there. A story from the parking lot after the game is the same story. It just is not an address any more.
2. Do not narrate a schedule. “Practice every Tuesday and Thursday until six” is a plan someone else can use.
3. Watch the background, not the caption. Street signs, house numbers, storefronts, bus numbers, and licence plates all give away location even with every tag removed.
4. Be careful with the first week of school and the first day of a trip. Those are the posts that name a building and a date at the same time.
5. Save the live stuff for close friends. Both Instagram and Snapchat let you post to a narrow list. If it has to go up right now, put it there.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Ghost Mode. Open Snap Map → tap the gear icon → toggle Ghost Mode on → pick 3 hours, 24 hours, or Until Turned Off. Pick the last one.
2. Or narrow the audience. Snap Map → gear → Map Settings → My Friends, My Friends, Except…, or Only These Friends…. Snap Map is never public and is off until you turn it on.
3. Cut it off at the phone too. Set Snapchat's location permission to While Using the App (iPhone) or Allow only while using the app (Android). Then it cannot update your spot in the background.
4. Turn off Footsteps. Profile → settings gear → Account Actions → Map → turn off saving new Footsteps. Footsteps is the trail of places you have recently been.
5. Who can contact you. Profile → gear → App & Privacy → Contact Me → Friends.
6. Who can see My Story. Profile → gear → App & Privacy → My Privacy & Data → Who Can See → View My Story → My Friends or Custom.
7. Get out of friend suggestions. Profile → gear → Privacy Controls → turn off appearing in Quick Add and friend suggestions, so people who are not your friends stop being shown your account.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Go private. Profile → ☰ menu → Settings and activity → Account privacy → toggle Private account on. Accounts for under-18s are private by default; if yours is public, it was switched at some point.
2. Hide when you are online. ☰ → Settings and activity → Messages and story replies → turn off Show Activity Status.
3. Lock down message requests. Same area → Message requests → stop requests from people you do not follow, and set group message requests separately.
4. Remove a location tag from one post. Open the post → … → Edit → tap the location name → Remove Location → save.
5. Check tags, mentions and story replies. Everything for this lives under Settings and activity → How others can interact with you. Set story sharing, tagging, and mentions to people you follow.
6. Cut the app's device permission too. iPhone: Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Instagram → Never. Android: Settings › Location › App location permissions › Instagram → Don't allow.

If you are 13–17, Instagram Teen Accounts already apply the strictest message filtering, hide offensive comments, and mute notifications overnight. That is a floor, not a finished job — the settings above are still worth checking yourself.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Private account. Profile → ☰ → Settings and privacy → Privacy → toggle Private account on. Accounts for ages 13–15 are private by default.
2. Limit DMs. If you are 13–15, TikTok does not allow direct messages at all. At 16–17: Settings and privacy → Privacy → Direct Message → set Others on TikTok to Don't receive.
3. Stop being suggested to strangers. Settings and privacy → Privacy → Suggest your account to others → turn off contacts, Facebook friends, and people who opened your links.
4. Remove a location from a video. Profile → the video → … → Edit post → clear the location field. Only possible for a limited window after posting.
5. Family Pairing, if you want it. Settings and privacy → Family Pairing → Continue → choose Teen and link with a parent's account. This can also restrict DMs.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Always use a timer. In a chat → attachment icon → Location → Share Live Location → choose 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 8 hours. It stops on its own when the timer ends.
2. Stop one chat early. Open that chat → Stop Sharing → Stop.
3. Stop everything at once. Settings → Privacy → Live location → Stop Sharing → Stop.
4. Hide when you were last online. Settings → Privacy → Last seen and online → Nobody or My contacts.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

1. Block DMs from server members. Desktop: cogwheel bottom left → Content & Social → under Social permissions → toggle off Direct messages. When it asks whether to apply this to servers you are already in, say yes — otherwise it only covers new ones.
2. On mobile. Profile icon bottom right → cogwheel top right → Settings → Content & Social → scroll to the server section → toggle Direct messages. There is a dropdown if you want to set it per server.
3. Limit friend requests. Same Content & Social screen → Friend Requests → three checkboxes: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Server Members. Untick all three to block every incoming request.
4. Go invisible. Click your avatar bottom left → Invisible.
5. Hide what you are playing. Cogwheel → Activity Privacy → turn off Share your activity with others, and turn off sharing by default in large servers. Activity Settings → Registered Games lets you switch off individual games.
6. Per-server privacy. Right-click or tap the server name → Privacy Settings → turn off Activity Status for that server.

Discord's own help page uses two slightly different names for the friend-request menu, so if the label does not match, look for Friend Requests under Content & Social. If a first message from someone new triggers a safety warning, read it — that prompt exists because that exact message is how most of these situations begin.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

To get to Settings: on a computer, click the gear top right. On the app, tap More (three dots, bottom right) then the gear. Settings is split into tabs: Account Info, Security, Privacy, Billing, Notifications.

1. Hide your online status and what you are playing. Settings → Privacy & content restrictions → Visibility & private servers → Visibility. Set Online Status to No one. Set Show current experience to No one — this one controls both whether people see the game you are in and whether they can jump in with you. Turn off Share activity updates.
2. Turn chat down. Settings → Privacy & content restrictions → Communication. Experience chat is the in-game text chat and is either Everyone or No one. Direct chat is private messaging. There are separate controls for Voice chat and Party chat.
3. Know the new age check. Since 2026 Roblox requires an age check — a face scan or an ID — before any chat, voice, or messaging feature can be switched on at all. A phone number alone no longer unlocks voice chat. If you are under 13 you also need a parent's consent.
4. Block someone. From their profile: tap the three dots top right → Block User. In a game: open the player list or leaderboard → pick the person → Block. On a computer in-game: press Esc → People tab → find them → Block. They are not told. They lose the ability to message you, send you connection requests, or invite you anywhere.
5. Report something. In a game: Menu button top left → the shield icon marked Report → choose Experience or Person → fill in the dropdowns → Submit. For a chat message: three dots in the chat window → Report abuse.
6. Turn on 2-step verification. Settings → Security → pick Authenticator App, Email, or Security Key. Backup codes are on the same screen. A stolen Roblox account is worth money, which is why they get targeted.
7. Account types changed in 2026. Roblox now bands accounts by age: Roblox Kids for ages 5–8 with all chat off by default, Roblox Select for ages 9–15 where a parent can block individual games and manage direct chat, and standard accounts from 16 up. If your account feels more locked down than a friend's, this is usually why.
8. Changing your username costs 1,000 Robux. Settings → Account Info → pencil icon next to your username. Roughly $12–15. Worth knowing before you decide your username gives too much away.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

Xbox. Under-18 accounts are managed by an adult in a Microsoft Family Group. On the console: Xbox button → Profile & system → Settings → Account → Privacy & online safety → Xbox privacy → View details & customize. The three sections that matter are Communication & multiplayer, Profile, and Online status & history. The same settings are at account.xbox.com/settings.

PlayStation. Console: Settings → Family and Parental Controls → Family Management. Or in the PlayStation App: select the profile → Privacy Settings → Edit. PlayStation offers whole-account presets rather than lots of separate switches, ranging from open to everyone down to “no player can see your profile information or invite you to chat, even if they are your friend.” Pick the tightest one you can live with. These apply on every device you sign in on.

On both. Voice chat in a party is where most of the risky conversation happens, not in text. If someone in a game wants to move you to Discord or Snapchat to keep talking, that is the moment to stop — see the red flags page.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

If a setting on this page is greyed out and will not move, you are probably not doing it wrong. Someone else controls that device.

1. Check if your Chromebook is managed. Click the time in the bottom right corner and look for a managed-device icon. If it is there, a school admin can enforce settings, install or block apps, and see activity.
2. If a Chromebook setting is locked. There is no student workaround, and Google does not publish a list of which settings schools lock. The only route is asking your school IT person. That is a real answer, not a brush-off.
3. Keep school and personal separate. Do not sign in to your personal Google, Instagram, or Snapchat on a school device. Anything you do there may be visible to the school, and a school account cannot be managed by Family Link anyway.
4. If a parent uses Family Link. They can manage app installs and permissions, set screen time, restrict Play Store content, and see your device location — on Android and Fitbit only, not on an iPhone. They can also control whether you are allowed to change certain settings yourself.
5. If a parent uses Screen Time on iPhone. Under Content & Privacy Restrictions a parent can lock Location Services and lock Share My Location specifically. If those are locked, you cannot change them and neither can any guide. Apple's own wording is that teens with Screen Time on “may not be able to change their own location sharing settings” — it depends on what your parent actually locked.
6. You can ask for an exception. On recent iPhone software you can send your parent a request for a one-off exception to a Screen Time restriction, and they get it as a message.
7. Shared tablets and family iPads. If everyone uses the same device, whoever picks it up next may see whatever is still signed in — Find My, Google Maps, your accounts. Sign out when you are done. If the family has Automatically Share Location switched on, new family members start sharing without anyone choosing it. This is general reasoning rather than something Apple or Google document directly, but the mechanics behind it are real.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

A lot of people skip a setting because of what they think the conversation will cost them. It usually costs less than expected if you lead with the reason.

1. Say what you want to change and why, in one sentence. “I want to turn off the map on Snapchat because it shows my exact spot to everyone I have added.” That sounds like safety, not secrecy.
2. Offer to keep the sharing they actually care about. Most parents care about knowing you got somewhere, not about a live map. “Keep Find My with you, turn off the app maps” is an easy yes.
3. Show them, do not just tell them. Open the setting and let them see it. It turns an argument into a two-minute task.
4. Do not switch off a parent's sharing quietly. If they notice it stopped and you did not say anything, you get the exact reaction you were trying to avoid.
5. If something already went wrong, lead with that. “Someone I do not know is messaging me and I need help” gets a completely different response than a request about settings. Adults who deal with this deal with it constantly.
6. If your parent is the person you cannot tell. A school counselor, a teacher, a coach, a relative, or the numbers on the help page all work. You do not have to start at home.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.

This is the last item on the checklist and the one people skip. Deciding now, while nothing is wrong, is the whole point — you will not be in a state to work it out later.

1. Name two adults. Actually name them, in your head, right now. A parent, a relative, a counselor, a coach, a teacher. Two, because one might be away.
2. Save one number. Put NCMEC's 1-800-843-5678 in your phone. It is staffed 24 hours a day and a person answers.
3. Know the first two moves. Stop replying. Do not delete anything. That is it — the rest is on the help page and you can read it when you need it.
4. Know the rule about paying. Never pay and never send another image. It does not stop.
5. Decide now that you are telling someone. Not whether — who. The plan is what stops you handling it alone at 2am, which is when it gets dangerous.

Checked against the company’s own help pages in August 2026. Apps rename menus without warning — if a label here does not match your screen, search the app’s settings for the bolded words.