PHILADELPHIA — Attorney General Dave Sunday announced the filing of a lawsuit against Snap, Inc. — owner-operators of Snapchat — regarding the social media giant’s failures to warn users of platform addictiveness and protect children from compulsive use.
In a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief filed this week in Philadelphia County Court, the Office of Attorney General seeks honesty from Snapchat in how its platform appears in app stores, and demands the company take steps to protect child users from becoming addicted to the app.
The complaint alleges that Snapchat lies about how often adult-themed material — such as sexual content and nudity, suicidal ideation, and drug use — appears on its 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,” Attorney General Sunday. “This lawsuit demands that Snapchat finally admit publicly that its platform is highly addictive and that it takes real action to keep kids safe.”
Earlier this month, Attorney General Sunday announced similar litigation against TikTok.
The 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.
This action is in line with Attorney General Sunday’s prior actions to protect kids from modern technology that is developed and marketed without adequate consideration of the harm it is causing. In addition to the TikTok lawsuit, late last year, he led a series of demand letters sent to A.I. companies regarding harmful chatbots; he continues to collaborate with legislators on laws that will protect Pennsylvanians; and remains engaged in litigation against Meta.
Read the full complaint HERE.
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