Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Snap Inc., alleging the company misled parents about the safety of its Snapchat platform while exposing minors to sexual content, drug references, and addictive design features.
The petition, filed in Collin County District Court, accuses Snap of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act.
According to the lawsuit, Snapchat marketed itself as appropriate for children through “12+” age ratings in the Apple App Store and “T for Teen” ratings in the Google Play and Microsoft stores. The State alleges those ratings are deceptive because the platform contains content involving profanity, sexual material, nudity, alcohol, tobacco, and drug use.
The petition states that Snap represented such content as “infrequent/mild,” while the company allegedly permitted abundant mature material accessible to minors.
The lawsuit also targets Snapchat features such as “Snapstreaks,” infinite scroll, autoplay video, push notifications, and ephemeral messaging. The State alleges these design elements are intentionally addictive and harmful to minors.
“I will not allow Snapchat to harm our kids by running a business designed to get Texas children addicted to a platform filled with obscene and destructive content,” Paxton said in a press release. “Parents have a fundamental right to know the dangers of the apps their kids are using and not be lied to by Big Tech companies.”
The petition alleges that Snap failed to provide adequate parental verification tools under the SCOPE Act and shared or disclosed minors’ personal identifying information without verified parental consent.
Texas is seeking civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation under the DTPA, injunctive relief, attorney’s fees, and compliance measures under state law.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Paxton has also taken legal action against TikTok and Roblox and launched investigations into other platforms over child safety concerns.
