SNAPCHAT IS BEING SUED FOR ALLEGEDLY EXPOSING MINORS TO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONTENT

A class-action lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of a 14-year-old boy in Los Angeles and his mom has claimed that the Venice tech firm is “currently engaged in an insidious pattern and practice of intentionally exposing minors to harmful, offensive, prurient, and sexually offensive content.”

Snapchat, which has 150 million daily active users, requires that people who use the app be 13 years old or older.

The complaint highlights stories like Buzzfeed’s “23 Pictures That Are Too Real If You’ve Ever had Sex With A Penis,” (illustrated with scenes from Disney animated movies) and Vice’s “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Penis Tattoos.”

“Innocent pictures from John’s favorite Disney movies were perverted into obscene sexual images and text,” the complaint states.

Mixed with that type of content, it says, are messages from Snapchat which say things like, “If They Don’t Snap You On A Daily Basis It Isn’t Real.”

And those are some of the more tame examples given in the lawsuit.

“Snapchat’s terms of service, which are generally entered into directly by minors (who by law lack the capacity and consent to enter into contracts in the first place), includes no warnings about the offensive content on Snapchat Discover,” states the lawsuit.

By not doing enough to warn minors and their parents about the sexual content, Snapchat violated the Communications Decency Act, a federal law that requires internet computer services to notify users that there are ways for parents to limit access to content that may be harmful to minors, the lawyer claims. The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court, also argues that Snapchat has run afoul of California consumer laws.