The unsealed lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Attorney General against Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, paints a troubling picture of the company’s negligence regarding child safety on its platform. According to the complaint, Snap’s employees had a clear understanding of the dangers posed by the app to children, including severe issues like sextortion, illegal gun sales, and addictive features. Despite this knowledge, the lawsuit alleges that Snap did not take meaningful action to mitigate these risks, raising significant concerns about the company’s commitment to user safety.
The complaint reveals that by November 2022, Snap was receiving approximately 10,000 user reports related to sextortion monthly, with employees acknowledging that this figure represented merely a fraction of the abuse occurring on Snapchat. Shocking instances are detailed, including a case where 75 reports concerning minors and extortion were logged, yet the alarming account remained active on the platform. Moreover, internal research indicated that more than a third of teenage girls and about 30% of teenage boys using Snapchat had encountered unwanted sexual contact, highlighting the platform’s vulnerability to predatory behavior and inadequate safeguards.
Further accusations in the complaint suggest that Snap employees recognized various features on the app that posed risks to minors. For example, the Quick Add feature, which connects users based on mutual friends, was deemed problematic, though the company’s subsequent changes to the feature were seen as inadequate by employees. They expressed concerns that the measures implemented to enhance child safety were insufficient, pointing to a disconnect between upper management’s priorities and the real dangers identified by those working on child safety issues.
In 2021, Snap employees reportedly received an external report indicating that predators were successfully using Snapchat to target children as young as eight. However, Snap employees hesitated to implement measures that could help detect such predatory activities, fearing these would infringe upon user privacy and lead to excessive administrative burdens. This underscores a troubling priority at Snap where user privacy appears to take precedence over the urgent need to protect vulnerable minors from exploitation and abuse on the platform.
Beyond child safety, the complaint brings to light Snap’s alleged role in facilitating the illegal sale of firearms through its platform. An internal presentation revealed that the company acknowledged the presence of about 50 posts linked to illegal gun sales daily, with around 9,000 views. Alarmingly, reports of this content often garnered hundreds of views before any remedial action was taken, demonstrating a significant lag in the company’s response to serious infractions.
Lastly, the lawsuit points to internal acknowledgments of the addictiveness of certain Snapchat features, particularly Snapstreaks, which track consecutive days of communication between users. Employees expressed concern over the compulsive nature of this feature, noting that it contributes to an environment where users find it difficult to disconnect, even for a day. This focus on engagement—while important for business success—raises ethical questions concerning the impact of these designs on younger users, ultimately amplifying the claims that Snap has prioritized growth and engagement metrics over the well-being and safety of its youngest users.
