In early September, the New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres brought a lawsuit against Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc, accusing the social network of falsely advertising to youth without disclosing that they can be victims of sexual predatory activity, like sextortion. The suit claims that despite numerous internal alarm bells and employee admonitions about the growth of child grooming on Snapchat, Snapchat failed to take significant action to protect its users.
Sextortion and Child Grooming Issues
The lawsuit alleges that Snapchat merely cut costs instead of safety for its users, instead of committing the resources necessary to deal with the increasing prevalence of child grooming and sextortion. Insider company memos show that Snapchat employees had received around 10,000 sextortion allegations a month in 2022, although company executives said those numbers likely are low, because victims are too afraid or ashamed to speak out.
The lawsuit also points out Snapchat’s safety personnel turned 90% of reports down, telling victims to “block the other person” via auto-dialers rather than provide any substantial support or resources. New Mexico accuses Snapchat executives of unchecking the risks knowing they did, and discussing it internally, saying solving the issue “should not be its job” because of the administrative hassle it would entail.
Snap’s Response
Snapchat has also defended itself against the lawsuit saying it understands the issue of online safety and continues to collaborate with the law enforcement community and government officials to improve protections for its users: “Our security system and policies are always evolving, from using the most sophisticated technology to catch and block malicious activity, to blocking friending suspicious accounts,” a Snapchat spokesperson said in a statement. It also stressed the fact that none of these issues can be addressed on its own, and an industry-wide approach is needed.
But even with these promises, the lawsuit alleges Snap knowingly didn’t alert users to the dangers, especially in adolescents, who are particularly vulnerable to online grooming and sexting networks. The state cites design elements, such as Streaks and Quick Add, to support abusive behavior in its lawsuit. Snap reportedly fought over how to tell customers of these risks “without frightening Snapchatters,” with limited safety precautions in place.
A History of Sextortion and Predation.
The suit enshrines the larger phenomenon of predation and sextortion on Snapchat, which is long known for pornographic communication thanks to its “dead-in-appearing” picture feature. Although Snapchat has assured us that information is storable and can be shared, the design of Snapchat itself has made it vulnerable to risky behavior, especially for young people.
As app-based “sexting” expanded over the past several years, young people have been increasingly looking to strangers on the internet for comfort and guidance, which exposes them to predators. The lawsuit focuses on how Snapchat’s failure to mitigate these risks has left potentially hazardous scenarios to persist.
The Perpetuating Sextortion Scam: the Biggest Problem Ever.
Sextortion is not confined to young users, since scammers increasingly attack consumers via digital media. : The predators will use graphic photos to threaten public attention if the victim isn’t willing to fork over. The scams often even use identifying information such as home addresses or names of family members to legitimize the threats.
New Mexico’s lawsuit against Snap is a step in the fight to safeguard children from online predators. In the ensuing courtroom struggle, the case could pave the way for other social media companies to deal with safety issues for vulnerable users today.
Check out more at Reuters and The Wall Street Journal.
