The lawsuit notes that Snapchat bases its 12+ and “T for Teen” ratings on “infrequent” possible exposure to crude humor, substance abuse, and mature or suggestive themes. Paxton’s office contends that objectionable content is anything but infrequent—and is, if anything, often an unavoidable part of using the application.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Snap, the owner of Snapchat, claiming that the company failed to adequately warn parents and consumers about the popular social media platform’s dangerously addictive design.
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Paxton’s office said that the creators of Snapchat “knowingly misrepresented” the application’s safety to parents by promoting it with “12+” age ratings on app stores. This was done despite an alleged lack of safeguards, with young users frequently exposed to violent, sexual, and otherwise objectionable content.
“Snap has established its enormous market share among teenage users of social media in part by marketing Snapchat as safe for minor users,” the lawsuit alleges. “As part of its intentional marketing of its app as safe, Snap assigns itself a “12+” rating in the Apple Store and a “T for Teen” rating in the Google Play and Microsoft Stores. Consumers are presented with these age ratings when they download Snapchat on a smartphone. These age ratings are highly deceptive—both because Snapchat hosts enormous amounts of mature content and facilitates dangerous activities and because of the psychologically harmful features of Snapchat as detailed below.”
The lawsuit notes that Snapchat bases its 12+ and “T for Teen” ratings on “infrequent” possible exposure to crude humor, substance abuse, and mature or suggestive themes. Paxton’s office contends that objectionable content is anything but infrequent—and is, if anything, often an unavoidable part of using the application.
“I will not allow Snapchat to harm our kids by running a business designed to get Texas children addicted to a platform filled with obscene and destructive content,” Paxton said. “Parents have a fundamental right to know the dangers of the apps their kids are using and not be lied to by Big Tech companies. This lawsuit will hold Snapchat accountable for illegally undermining parental rights, deceiving consumers, and for putting children in danger.”
Paxton’s office further contends that Snapchat ignored repeated concerns about unwanted and unsafe interactions between children and adults.
“Young users can and do form connections with adult strangers they have not met in real life through Snapchat because of how Snapchat is designed,” the lawsuit says. “Once that happens, it is easy for those strangers to find young people on the Snap Map, and vice versa.”
The lawsuit also claims that Snapchat’s in-built features, including the automatic erasure of most messages, serves to embolden and encourage illicit activity.
“Snapchat’s baseline ephemerality also deprives law enforcement of critical evidence to pursue charges against ill-meaning adults who prey on young people on and through Snapchat,” the lawsuit states. “A drug dealer, for example, can find a teen on Snapchat and sell him or her a lethal fentanyl-laced pill, but when that teen dies and the messages are deleted from Snap’s servers, law enforcement has nothing from Snapchat connecting the dealer with the teen’s death.”
Representatives for Snapchat have since disputed the state’s claims.
“There is no single safety measure or policy that can eliminate every potential risk online – just as there isn’t offline. That’s why we’ve implemented strong safeguards, introduced strong safety tutorials and resources, partnered with experts, and continue to invest in features and tools that support the safety, privacy, and well-being of all Snapchatters,” Snapchat said.
“We strongly disagree with the Texas Attorney General’s complaint, which fundamentally distorts how our platform works. There is no single safety measure or policy that can eliminate every potential risk online – just as there isn’t offline,” Snapchat said in a statement reprinted, in part, by KVUE-ABC. “That’s why we’ve implemented strong safeguards, introduced safety tutorials and resources, partnered with experts, and continue investing in features and tools that support the safety, privacy, and well-being of all Snapchatters.”
Sources
Texas AG Paxton files lawsuit against Snapchat over child safety concerns
Texas sues Snapchat for allegedly harming minors, misleading parents
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