THE NSPCC is calling on the Government to force social media networks to offer under 18s safe accounts with location settings locked off and privacy at the highest level as concern about Snapchat’s new Snap Map mounts.

The children’s charity is currently urging young people who use the programme to hide their location using ghost mode and warns that it could leave users vulnerable to grooming, stalking and bullying.

Some schools and police forces around the country have warned parents about the update that shows people where their Snapchat friends are and lets them see what they are doing if they share a photo. It also lets them upload their pictures to Our Story, which means anyone can see it.

Research from Netaware, the charity’s online safety website, found that 36 per cent of young people had added someone online that they don’t know in the last six months.

NSPCC child safety online expert Rose Bray said: “Even limiting Snap Maps to the friends only setting is risky if those contacts include people you don’t know.

“This highlights why it’s vital Government forces social networks to offer safe accounts to under 18s, with the highest privacy settings and location settings locked off.”

She said: “Young people can hide their location using ghost mode, which can be switched on from the Snap Maps screen.

“It’s important parents have regular conversations with young people about staying safe online, and making sure that they know how to protect their privacy,” she added.

“The NSPCC’s Share Aware materials online can help parents to start these conversations.”

Meanwhile Instagram has announced an update that enables users to reply to Stories in the app with a photo or video of their own.

Instagram Stories are the chronological collections of photos and videos that users can add to over a 24-hour period to tell the story of their day.

The update is the latest unveiled by the Facebook-owned app that has a striking similarity to rival Snapchat, which also allows users to reply to Stories with a photo or video as well as text.

"Today's update is just one of the ways we're working to make Direct the best place to have fun, visual conversations with friends on Instagram," a blog post from Instagram said.

"When a friend replies to your story with a photo or a video, you'll see it in your inbox. You can tap to view it and also see a sticker of the original story that's only visible to you."

The feature will be introduced to users on both iOS and Android, beginning today, Instagram said.

Facebook has been aggressively targeting rival social media app Snapchat in recent months with consistent updates to its family of apps - which also includes Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp - with many of the upgrades offering identical features to those that have made Snapchat popular with teenage smartphone users.

However, the tactic has so far worked for Instagram, which reported last month that Stories was being used daily by 250 million people, surpassing the 166m in total who use Snapchat.

Snapchat's parent company Snap recently launched its first piece of hardware - video recording sunglasses called Spectacles - in the UK.