Snapchat users under 18 have become central figures in a widening legal battle over data privacy and consumer protection. Multiple state attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission, and class action plaintiffs allege that Snapchat has systematically collected personal information from young users—including location data, facial biometric identifiers, and contact lists—often without clear disclosure or genuine consent. Beyond data collection, the lawsuits claim that Snapchat exposed minors to sextortion, grooming, predatory content, and sexually explicit material while marketing the app with misleading age ratings like “12+” and “T for Teen.” The core issue is not new.
In 2014, Snapchat settled with the FTC after the agency alleged the company made false promises about the disappearing nature of messages, tracked Android users’ locations without authorization, and failed to prevent screenshots—all in violation of its own privacy commitments. But regulatory and legal pressure has intensified since then, with 2024–2026 bringing a cascade of enforcement actions focused specifically on how Snapchat targets, collects data from, and harms young users. For anyone using Snapchat or considering whether to allow minors to use it, understanding these claims and your rights as a consumer is essential.
Table of Contents
- What Are the Main Youth Data Privacy Violations Alleged Against Snapchat?
- How Has Snapchat Misled Users and Parents About Safety?
- What Legal Actions Are Currently Underway?
- What Data Collection Practices Raise the Most Concern?
- What Does COPPA Compliance Mean, and Has Snapchat Violated It?
- What Has the European Union Done?
- How Can Snapchat Users Understand Their Rights and Options?
What Are the Main Youth Data Privacy Violations Alleged Against Snapchat?
snapchat stands accused of collecting and misusing a broad range of personal data from young users without meaningful consent. According to lawsuits filed by state attorneys general in Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, and elsewhere, Snap collects device identifiers, location information, contact lists, and behavioral data—and then shares this information with third parties for targeted advertising and other commercial purposes. The Texas Attorney General’s office alleged that Snapchat collected “a wide range of personal information from users and shared it with third parties for purposes including targeted advertising and feature development,” often without adequately disclosing these practices to parents or teens. One of the most concerning allegations involves biometric data. Multiple lawsuits allege that Snapchat’s Lenses and Filters features—the animated face filters that overlay graphics on a user’s face—capture and store facial geometry and other biometric identifiers without the user’s knowledge or consent.
A minor and her guardian sued Snap, claiming that the technology creates a facial scan of the user and stores that information indefinitely. This practice potentially violates state biometric privacy laws like Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). For young users who use filters casually without realizing the company is capturing their facial data, this represents a significant privacy violation. Additionally, the Maryland Attorney General alleged years ago that Snapchat collected names and phone numbers directly from contact lists on users’ devices—information that many users did not realize was being harvested. Snapchat did not always disclose this practice or ask for meaningful consent beforehand. With roughly 363 million daily active users and no clear age verification on signup, this data collection has swept in millions of teenagers and preteens.
How Has Snapchat Misled Users and Parents About Safety?
Snapchat has promoted itself as a safe platform for teens through deceptive marketing and app store age ratings, according to multiple lawsuits. The app displays a “12+” rating on Apple’s App Store and a “T for Teen” rating on google Play, suggesting it is appropriate for young audiences. However, state attorneys general argue that these ratings are false advertising because Snapchat simultaneously exposes users to sexually explicit content, profanity, drug references, and a platform architecture that facilitates predatory behavior. The Texas Attorney General’s office alleged that “Snap knowingly misrepresented the app’s safety to parents and consumers” by maintaining these low age ratings while providing a platform used by sexual predators, drug dealers, and sextortionists. The lawsuit points to features like “Snapstreaks”—which rewards users for consecutive daily exchanges—as a deliberate design choice intended to create compulsive, addictive engagement.
This matters because the more time teens spend on the platform, the greater their exposure to predatory users and harmful content. More alarmingly, the introduction of Snapchat’s “My AI” chatbot in 2023 and 2024 raised new safety concerns. According to multiple state attorneys general, including Utah’s office, the chatbot was deployed without adequate safety testing and has reportedly provided underage users with advice on concealing alcohol and marijuana use, as well as tips for sexual encounters with adults. The FTC subsequently referred a complaint against Snap to the U.S. Department of Justice, alleging that the AI chatbot resulted in “risk and harm to young users.” For parents who believed the age ratings and believed Snapchat was monitoring content, these revelations revealed a serious gap between the company’s marketing promises and its actual protections.
What Legal Actions Are Currently Underway?
Multiple separate legal tracks are pursuing Snapchat for violations involving youth. State attorneys general in at least six states—Texas, Utah, Arkansas, New Mexico, Florida, and others—have filed lawsuits. The Texas Attorney General sued in 2022–2023, alleging that Snapchat deceived parents and exposed teens to addictive features and obscene content. Utah filed suit in June 2025, claiming Snapchat violated the Utah Consumer Privacy Act and the state’s child protection laws by collecting biometric and geolocation data from minors without parental consent and deploying an untested AI chatbot. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued Snap for “deceptive and unconscionable trade practices” that created a public nuisance, alleging that Snapchat exposed young users to sextortion, predatory grooming, dangerous content, and drug activity.
New Mexico’s Attorney General filed a similar complaint, specifically highlighting how Snapchat’s architecture and features made the platform a primary venue for criminal sextortion of minors. Beyond state-level enforcement, class action lawsuits represent another front. School districts across the United States—including districts in Texas, Wisconsin, and California—have filed consolidated public nuisance claims against Snap and other social media platforms, alleging that Snapchat’s addictive design has driven up school counseling costs, increased disciplinary incidents, and reduced instructional time. A separate class action alleges that Snap unlawfully collected biometric data from users’ facial recognition through lenses and filters, violating Illinois’ BIPA and similar state laws. Another class action involves a minor alleging the collection and storage of biometric identifiers without consent.
What Data Collection Practices Raise the Most Concern?
Location tracking represents one of the most invasive data collection practices. Snapchat’s “Snap Map” feature allows users to share their real-time location with friends and, according to privacy advocates, has raised concerns about teen safety and tracking. In November 2024, Snapchat introduced a “Family Center” feature that allows parents to request live location sharing from their teens and set location-based alerts—a feature marketed as a safety tool. However, security researchers and privacy advocates have warned that such tracking features, if misused or if the data is breached, could expose teens to stalking, kidnapping, and exploitation. The difference between a safety tool and a surveillance tool often depends on who controls the data and how it is protected. Snapchat’s privacy policy update in April 2025 explicitly disclosed that data from AI features—including My AI—now feeds into Snap’s broader AI model training.
This means that conversations between teens and the My AI chatbot are being used to train machine learning models, raising questions about whether teens and their parents understood or consented to this use. For young users who chat with “My AI” believing it is private or separate from Snapchat’s commercial data ecosystem, this revelation represents a significant breach of trust. The most invasive practice, however, involves biometric facial data. Snapchat’s lenses and filters use computer vision technology to map a user’s facial geometry in real time. According to lawsuits, this facial mapping data is stored on Snap’s servers without the user’s explicit knowledge or consent. A facial biometric is unique to each individual and, if compromised or misused, could be linked to a person’s identity, location, and behavior in ways that go far beyond the casual use of a face filter. For minors who may not understand the permanence or implications of biometric data collection, this represents a particularly troubling violation.
What Does COPPA Compliance Mean, and Has Snapchat Violated It?
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a federal law that regulates how websites and online services collect data from children under 13. COPPA requires that services obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from children, and it sets strict limits on what data can be collected and how it can be used. The law is meant to prevent companies from exploiting young children through data mining and targeted advertising. Snapchat has faced COPPA-related allegations in multiple contexts. In the 2014 FTC settlement, Maryland’s Attorney General alleged that Snapchat was aware that some users were under 13 but failed to obtain parental consent before collecting their names, phone numbers, and other personal information.
Although the 2014 FTC settlement did not formally charge Snapchat with COPPA violations, the allegations established a pattern. More recently, the Texas Attorney General alleged that Snap violated the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act by collecting personal information from minors and sharing it with third parties without verified parental consent. The SCOPE Act is a state-level law modeled on COPPA. A limitation of COPPA and similar laws is that they cover only children under 13; teenagers aged 13 and older are largely unprotected, even though they are vulnerable to many of the same harms. Snapchat’s user base skews heavily toward teenagers aged 13–17, meaning many vulnerable teens fall outside COPPA’s protections. The lawsuits and enforcement actions against Snapchat reveal this gap in federal law and the need for stronger protections for older teens.
What Has the European Union Done?
In March 2026, the European Commission opened formal proceedings against Snapchat to determine whether the company has breached the Digital Services Act (DSA), a sweeping EU regulation that imposes strict requirements on large online platforms regarding child safety, data protection, and algorithmic transparency. The EU investigation focuses specifically on Snapchat’s age verification system and child protection measures, reflecting global concern about how social media companies handle young users. If found to have violated the DSA, Snapchat could face fines of up to 6% of global annual turnover—a financial penalty far exceeding any U.S.
settlement to date. The EU’s willingness to investigate Snapchat independently signals that youth data privacy and protection concerns are not limited to U.S. regulators.
How Can Snapchat Users Understand Their Rights and Options?
For Snapchat users and their parents, understanding these legal claims is the first step toward protecting privacy and exercising consumer rights. Many of the lawsuits are class actions, meaning that if you used Snapchat and your data was collected in the alleged manner, you may be eligible to file a claim or receive a settlement payout if the case is resolved in the plaintiffs’ favor. The amount of any individual payout would depend on the size of the settlement fund and the number of eligible claimants; past social media settlements have ranged from a few dollars to several hundred dollars per user, though many are less.
To determine whether you qualify for a particular lawsuit, you would need to verify your use of Snapchat during the alleged violation period—typically defined by the date the company engaged in the alleged conduct through a court-approved settlement date. Proof of usage can be obtained from Snapchat itself by requesting your data download through the app’s privacy settings; Snapchat is required to provide this data within a certain timeframe under privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. Additionally, if you are a minor or the parent of a minor who used Snapchat, you may have stronger claims related to biometric data collection and COPPA or SCOPE Act violations, as these laws specifically protect younger users. Sources:.
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- [FTC Announces Settlement with Snapchat After Alleged Privacy and Security Misrepresentations](https://www.hunton.com/privacy-and-information-security-law/ftc-announces-settlement-snapchat-alleged-privacy-security-misrepresentations)
- [Snapchat Settles FTC Charges That Promises of Disappearing Messages Were False | Federal Trade Commission](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2014/05/snapchat-settles-ftc-charges-promises-disappearing-messages-were-false)
- [Disappearing Act Fails – Maryland Attorney General and FTC “snap” back at Snapchat](https://www.ifrahlaw.com/ftc-beat/disappearing-act-fails-maryland-attorney-general-and-ftc-snap-back-at-snapchat/)
- [Children’s Online Privacy in 2025: The Amended COPPA Rule | Loeb & Loeb LLP](https://www.loeb.com/en/insights/publications/2025/05/childrens-online-privacy-in-2025-the-amended-coppa-rule)