Mainstream Contributors To Sexual Exploitation
Snapchat Is Dangerous By Design
Year after year, Snapchat is named a top spot for sextortion, sexual interactions between minors and adults, and pornography exposure.
Samantha* chewed her lip as she stared at the request for a sexually explicit video.
She probably shouldn’t do this. She was only eleven years old. And Matthew was twenty-two. . .
But this kind of thing was safe on Snapchat, right? The videos would automatically disappear after Matthew looked at them.
Samantha hit record . . . And then she hit send.
Immediately, Samantha felt shame and fear wash over her. What would her parents think if they found out? With trembling fingers, Samantha frantically sought out Snapchat’s “My Eyes Only” feature. As she hid the sexually explicit videos in the passcode-protected folder, relief slowly seeped into her body.
Thank goodness for Snapchat’s brilliant design features . . . Her parents wouldn’t find out. She could continue sending videos to Matthew safely, in peace.
But she was not safe. And she was not at peace.
Samantha is a pseudonym, but the narrative is based on true events, as alleged in a lawsuit against Snap (the owner of Snapchat). Samantha’s lawsuit is only one of many, in which the tech company is being sued for causing grave harm to minors—including leading to their sexual exploitation and sometimes death. Samantha herself attempted suicide twice as a result of the exploitation she experienced on Snapchat and other social media platforms.
Snap knows how dangerous its platform is but has done little to resolve the issues. Instead, Snap continues to keep and even add yet riskier features, such as My Eyes Only, Speed filter, Snap Streaks, and MyAI.
Research, law enforcement, survivors, lawyers, and other child online safety experts consistently name Snapchat within the top three most dangerous platforms for children—and available data on child online exploitation confirms this assessment.
Snap must radically reform its platform. Enough is enough!
Review the proof we’ve collected, read our recommendations for improvement, and see our notification letter to Roblox for more details.
Take Action
Our Requests for Improvement
- Automatically block sexually explicit images (especially those sent to minor accounts) and accompany them with warnings, resources, and prompts to report, block, and remove such accounts. Provide messaging to minors who are about to send nude images about the risks.
- Automatically detect sexually explicit related text, images, and emojis just as Snap is doing for drug-related content.
- Proactively identify, remove, and block accounts and bots that are posting and promoting pornographic content and/or selling sex with greater efficiency and proactive measures.
- Use available technology and blocking patterns to identify “suspicious adults” and further prevent them from engaging with minors.
- Expand Family Center functions to allow parents to see what their children are exposed to on Stories and Spotlight, send alerts to parents when their children add or remove friends, settings are changed, or sexually explicit images are being sent or received.
- Default all minor accounts to the highest safety settings and make all available safety tools (like Content Controls) available to all youth.
- Provide resources to parents and children (in-app through Here for You and Heads Up as well as in the Parent’s Guide) regarding crimes and dangerous trends rampant on Snapchat including sexting, sextortion, grooming, child sex abuse material, sex trafficking, and more.
