Snapchat is a primary platform for online predators Those who use “sextortion” schemes Coercing minors to send graphic images and videos of themselves and then using the explicit content as blackmail, according to a lawsuit filed by New Mexico.
Attorney General Raul Torrez announced Thursday that his office has taken legal action against Snapchat's parent company Snap following a months-long investigation.
Torrez alleged that Snapchat – a The photo-sharing app is extremely popular among teenagers and young users known for messages that disappear within 24 hours – has policies and design features that facilitate the sharing and distribution of child sexual abuse material.
“Snap misled users by leading them to believe that photos and videos sent over their platform would disappear, but predators can capture this content permanently and have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely,” Torrez said in a statement.
An investigation by the New Mexico Department of Justice used a fake Snapchat account impersonating a 14-year-old girl named “Heather” who exchanged messages with an account called “child.rape” and other accounts with explicit names.
Investigators also found 10,000 records relating to Snap and child sexual abuse material on dark websites, and said Snapchat was “by far the largest source of images and videos across the dark web sites investigated.”
A Snap spokesperson said the company “received the New Mexico Attorney General's complaint” and is “carefully reviewing it.”
The spokesperson told The Post that Snap “will respond to these claims in court”, adding: “We share Attorney General Torrez's and the public's concerns about the safety of young people online and are deeply committed to making Snapchat a safe and positive place for our entire community, especially our young users.”
A company representative said it is “working diligently to find, remove and report bad actors, educate our community and give teens as well as parents and guardians the tools to help them stay safe online.”
The spokesperson added, “We understand that online threats are constantly evolving and we continue to work diligently to address these important issues. We've invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years, and have designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family.”
Last December, New Mexico files suit against Meta Platforms Accused that its social media networks Facebook and Instagram failed to provide security Protecting underage users from adult sexual content and harassing messages from alleged child predators — including “photos and videos of genitals” and six-figure offers to star in porn films.
State investigators used a similar strategy in their investigation of Meta. They created test accounts for four fictitious children on Meta-owned social media sites using AI-generated photos that allegedly depicted children 14 years old or younger.
“Meta has allowed Facebook and Instagram to become a marketplace for predators looking for children on which to prey”, according to the complaint, which blamed the tech giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg for engaging in conduct that was “unacceptable” and “unlawful”.
The company has argued that it makes extensive efforts to protect young users from harm.
“We use sophisticated technology, employ child safety experts, report content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and share information and tools with other companies and law enforcement, including state attorneys general, to help root out predators,” Meta said in a statement.
In July, Meta said it had removed nearly 63,000 Instagram accounts Some people in Nigeria were attempting to engage in “sextortion” scams targeting mostly adult men and some children in the United States.
Of those 63,000 accounts, Meta said it had identified a network of 2,500 accounts Operated by a group of 20 individuals who “primarily targeted adult men in the US and used fake accounts to conceal their identities.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Barbadi and Taylor Herzlich
