EU Launches Investigation Into Snapchat’s Compliance With Laws Protecting Children From Grooming

The European Commission has launched an investigation into Snapchat over concerns the social media platform is not doing enough to protect children from sexual grooming attempts and recruitment for criminal activity.

The European Union’s executive branch said in a March 26 statement that it was opening formal proceedings “to investigate if Snapchat is ensuring a high level of safety, privacy and security for children online,” in compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

The investigation will focus on whether the social media platform, owned by U.S. tech company Snap Inc., is “adequately protecting minors from being contacted by users with harmful intent, such as sexual exploitation or recruitment for criminal activities,” the statement said.

The commission said that by allowing their service to be used by adults who do not disclose their real age and potentially pose as children, “Snapchat may not be implementing sufficient safeguards to protect children from exposure to harmful content, contact, conduct, and other risks.”

It will also investigate whether the platform’s default settings provide sufficient privacy and safety for children, such as whether minors are being automatically recommended to other users through the platform’s “Find Friends” function.

Additionally, the probe will look into whether the system is properly checking whether a user is under the age of 17, which it needs to do to ensure minors have an “age-appropriate experience.”

As part of the investigation, the EU will also be examining whether Snapchat breached the DSA by not doing enough to prevent the sale of illegal goods via its platform, including drugs or age-restricted products such as alcohol and vapes.

“From grooming and exposure to illegal products to account settings that undermine minors’ safety, Snapchat appears to have overlooked that the Digital Services Act demands high safety standards for all users,” said Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy.

“With this investigation, we will closely look into their compliance with our legislation.”

Snapchat said in a statement that it “fully cooperated” with the EU by “engaging proactively, transparently and working in good faith to meet the DSA’s high safety standards—and we will continue to do so throughout this investigation.”

User well-being and safety is a “top priority,” and Snapchat is designed with “privacy and safety built in from the start, including additional protection for teens,” the company said.

Legal Action Against Platforms

The investigation adds to pressure that social media and content sharing platforms are experiencing in the United States, following two high-profile legal challenges against Meta and YouTube, similarly related to young people’s safety and well-being.

On March 24, a jury in New Mexico found that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, violated state law by failing to disclose the risks children faced on its platforms.

The jury found that Meta had breached New Mexico’s consumer protection law and imposed a $375 million fine.

A spokesperson for Meta said it disagreed with the verdict and would appeal.

“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” the spokesperson said.

The following day, a Los Angeles jury found Google and Meta liable for $6 million in damages to a 20-year-old woman, identified as “K.G.M.,” after finding the companies could be held accountable for psychological harms she suffered as a result of an addiction to their apps, YouTube and Instagram.

Of the $3 million in compensatory damages assessed against them, Meta was ordered to pay 70 percent and Google 30 percent. The jury awarded another $3 million in punitive damages, including $2.1 million from Meta and $900,000 from Google.

Google and Meta disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal, ​spokespersons for each company said.

Snapchat and TikTok were also defendants in the original lawsuit, but both settled before the trial began on Feb. 9.

The Associated Press, Reuters, Stacy Robinson, and Beige Luciano-Adams contributed to this report.