PA Sues Snapchat, Alleges Failure To Provide Child Safeguards

PENNSYLVANIA — State Attorney General Dave Sunday has filed a lawsuit against the owner of Snapchat alleging the social media behemoth has failed to warn users of platform addictiveness and hasn't protected children from compulsive use.

The lawsuit, filed this week in Philadelphia County Court, seeks honesty from Snap Inc. in how its platform appears in app stores and demands that Snapchat take measures to protect child users from becoming addicted to the app.

The lawsuit contends that Snapchat lies about how often adult material - including sexual content and nudity, suicidal ideation and drug use - appears on the platform to achieve an age-13+ app rating in app stores.

“Snapchat has designed its platform to lure children into constant, compulsive use that is detrimental to healthy adolescent development,” Sunday said in a statement. “This lawsuit demands that Snapchat finally admit publicly that its platform is highly addictive and that it takes real action to keep kids safe.”

This lawsuit comes two weeks after Sunday filed a similar lawsuit against Tik-Tok.

It also comes as Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay $18 billion Tuesday to settle a social media addiction lawsuit filed by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general of 29 states.

The Snapchat lawsuit cites platform designs unique to Snapchat that make it highly addictive, including SnapStreak features and an "ephemeral component" that is particularly attractive to teens.

Snapchat is one of the most popular apps for teens, with about half of teens (ages 13-17) being daily users of the app, according to Pew Research Center. About 13 percent of teens report being on it “almost constantly,” according to Pew.