An unidentified 14-year-old boy and his mom have sued Snapshat, accusing the hot social media app of routinely exposing minors to sexually explicit content.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed in federal court in Los Angeles by famed lawyer Mark Geragos. It takes aim directly at Snapchat Discover, the Venice, Calif., company’s 18-month-old channel that features sexually explicit company-curated content available to minors without warning.
That, the suit alleges, violates the US Communications Decency Act.
“Millions of parents in the United States today are unaware that Snapchat is curating and publishing this profoundly sexual and offensive content to their children,” the 32-page lawsuit claims.
“By engaging in such conduct directed at minors, and making it simple and easy for users to ‘snap’ each other content from Snapchat Discover, Snapchat is reinforcing the use of its service to facilitate problematic communications, such as ‘sexting,’ between minors,” the suit, filed on Thursday, claims. “Snapchat has placed profit from monetizing Snapchat Discover over the safety of children.”
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Apple’s App Store says Snapchat is appropriate for kids 12 and older — and seems to downplay the availability of sexually explicit material on the app, saying it contains infrequent or mild sexual content, nudity, suggestive themes, profanity and references to drugs and alcohol.
To be sure, Snapchat’s terms of service restrict the use of the service to children 13 and older.
Snapchat did not comment on the suit, saying it hadn’t yet seen a copy of the legal papers. It did apologize to any user who was offended.
The suit highlights sex-focused stories like “10 Things He Thinks When He Can’t Make You Orgasm,” which, it claims, was placed right after a feature titled “Do you like me?”
It also points to a story, “I Got High, Blown, and Robbed When I Was A Pizza Delivery Guy” and “People Share Their Secret Rules for Sex.”
Each ran in the past few weeks, the suit said.