August 25, 2026
USA Today/Reuters Connect
Snapchat is at the center of a new lawsuit filed Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, who also sued TikTok over child safety concerns.
Snapchat illegally marketed itself as appropriate for teenagers despite its profane content and addictive design, a new Pennsylvania lawsuit claims.
In litigation filed Tuesday, Attorney General Dave Sunday said the social media platform repeatedly has violated state consumer protection law. Much of his argument rests on Snapchat's age ratings on the Apple app store, where it is advertised for people 13 and older, and Google Play, where it is designated "T" for all teens. Snap Inc., which operates Snapchat, achieved these ratings through responses to a questionnaire about content on its product's platform — answers that were "false, deceptive, and misleading," according to Sunday.
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An investigation by Sunday's office contradicts Snap's claims that its app contains infrequent or mild profanity, crude humor, sexual content, nudity and references to alcohol or drugs, the lawsuit says. When a state employee set up a Snapchat account on a new iPhone with a 13-year-old's birthday, the lawsuit alleges, they easily accessed videos of young men rolling blunts, women simulating sex and users lip-syncing to explicit song lyrics.
Sunday argued that Snapchat's ephemeral design also makes it possible for pedophiles and drug dealers to prey on children. Messages generally disappear from the app and Snapchat servers after 24 hours, depriving law enforcement of "critical evidence."
The expiring content "drives addiction," the lawsuit says, by incentivizing users to return frequently before their friends' posts vanish. Other features encourage excessive use, such as an infinite scroll of videos, autoplay and push notifications. Metrics like "Snapstreaks" reward high engagement and end when two users fail to keep up a daily chat.
The lawsuit links social media use to the "nationwide teen mental health crisis," echoing similar warnings from public health researchers and the U.S. surgeon general. It argues Snapchat interferes with "healthy cognitive development" and puts young teens at risk of anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia and self-harm. The app's design also encourages minors to lie about their age, the lawsuit suggests. When most social media platforms ask users to input their birthday, they default the fields to the current date. Snapchat is automatically set at 18 years from the current date.
"Snapchat has designed its platform to lure children into constant, compulsive use that is detrimental to healthy adolescent development," Sunday said in a statement. "This lawsuit demands that Snapchat finally admit publicly that its platform is highly addictive and that it takes real action to keep kids safe."
Snap disputed the attorney general's allegations in a statement Tuesday, saying they "fundamentally misrepresent our platform and our approach to teen safety."
"Snapchat was designed differently from the beginning: it opens to a camera, not a feed of content, and was built to encourage self-expression and authentic connection with friends," a company spokesperson said. "We share the attorney general’s commitment to protecting young people online and are disappointed they have chosen litigation rather than working with us toward that shared goal."
Sunday took similar legal action against TikTok earlier this month. Both suits ask the court to declare the social media apps in violation of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, and permanently enjoin them from further infractions.
This story was updated with comment from Snap.
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