Snapchat Faces Lawsuit in New Mexico Over Failure to Protect Young Users

Snapchat’s facing a potential ban in the state of New Mexico, with a new lawsuit filed by state Attorney General Raúl Torrez alleging that Snap has failed protect children from sextortion, sexual exploitation, and harm in the app.

According to the filing, Snapchat is now “a primary platform used by criminals to carry out sextortion,” which is one of the most rapidly growing crimes targeting young people. New Mexico’s Department of Justice claims to have conducted an undercover investigation of the app, which led to the discovery “a vast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images”.

As per Torrez:

“Our undercover investigation revealed that Snapchat’s harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse. Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely.”

As part of its investigation, the New Mexico DOJ says that it set up a fake profile depicting a 14 year-old girl in the app, and this account was targeted by several dangerous accounts.

“The New Mexico DOJ also alleges Snap and its executives have misled the public about the platform’s safety, including during congressional testimony and in a 2024 Super Bowl advertisement that declares the platform is “more private” and “less permanent” than other social media platforms.”

In response, Snapchat says that it has reviewed the claims, and that it will respond to them in court.

As per Snap:

“We share Attorney General Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people and are deeply committed to Snapchat being a safe and positive place for our entire community, particularly for our younger users […] We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years, and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family. We continue this work in collaboration with law enforcement, online safety experts, industry peers, parents, teens, educators and policymakers towards our shared goal of keeping young people safe online.”

Snapchat will now need to respond to the claims made by the New Mexico DOJ, and could face penalties as a result. Or, in the worst-case scenario, a ban in the state.

It’s a blow for Snap, which is in the process of rebuilding its business, and generating more interest in its ad offerings, especially among SMBs. Questions over brand safety will raise concerns among potential ad partners, especially given that Snap is also now looking to incorporate promotions into user inboxes.

Which is where the messages detected by the New Mexico investigation have occurred, and it’ll be interesting to note if there is any advertiser backlash as a result of this action.

But the main concern, of course, is the safety of Snap users, and that Snapchat is addressing any problematic engagement in the app. The company will now have to explore the allegations in detail, and if they are found to be correct, implement more measures to address such.

But really, stamping out all abuse of this kind if virtually impossible, and there may not be a heap that Snap can do, in terms of additional advice and protections, in addition to its existing measures.

Either way, it’ll be worth noting what outcomes are determined as a result of this case.