Snapchat Lawsuits: Addiction & Child Exploitation

Families are filing Snapchat lawsuits claiming that Snap, the company behind the app, failed to protect its users from serious mental health and exploitation issues.

Snapchat is a photo-based social media app with hundreds of millions of active users. Its audience has generally skewed younger, with many teens and children active on the app.

Its main feature is the ability to send temporary photos and videos that can disappear forever after just a few seconds.

Snapchat Addiction Lawsuits

Social media addiction lawsuits claim that Snapchat and other platforms were designed to be intentionally addictive and left their users with severe mental health issues as a result.

Lawsuits claim that Snap fixated on increasing engagement and convincing its users to spend more time on Snapchat. One example of this is Snapscore, a visible score for every user that increases the more they use the app.

“Snapscores are important to users, especially young users, because they operate as a form of social validation,” the master complaint for these lawsuits states.

Another potentially addictive feature laid out in lawsuits is the “Snap Streak,” where users are rewarded with a running count if they continue to exchange photo or video messages at least once a day with the same user.

“It is a matter of common knowledge in the social media industry that the Snap Streak product feature is designed to be addictive,” lawsuits state.

These engagement-boosting features may have had a devastating impact. Snapchat is also notable for its “filters,” which allow users to take altered photos of themselves using different animations, colors or designs.

“This has led researchers to coin the term ‘Snapchat Dysmorphia,’ in which the effect of Snapchat’s filters triggers body dysmorphic disorder,” lawsuits claim.

In 2026, the first social media addiction lawsuit involving Snapchat was set to go to trial. Snap, however, agreed to a private settlement with the plaintiff for an undisclosed amount before the trial began. The trial continued with claims against Instagram and YouTube, whose parent companies were ordered to pay $6 million.

Snapchat Child Exploitation Lawsuits

Snapchat is facing lawsuits claiming that it prioritized profits over safety, allowing the app to be used by child predators to contact minors through the platform.

One lawsuit claims that a predator took advantage of Snapchat’s “Quick Add” feature, which allows users to friend people who are nearby. The lawsuit claims that the predator then groomed the victim and convinced them to meet in person, where they were drugged and sexually assaulted.

Snapchat is also closely tied to the Roblox lawsuits, which claim the popular gaming platform became a playground for child predators.

Families who have filed lawsuits say that predators got into contact and gained the trust of minors on Roblox before moving the conversation to an app with fewer restrictions, like Snapchat. Many cases list both Roblox and Snapchat as defendants. Lawsuits against Discord have been filed over similar claims.

Lawsuits claim that a big part of the issue is Snap’s misrepresentation of the app’s safety. Cases argue that Snapchat lured users in with “constant, false assurances to parents that its app is safe for children.”

People who have filed cases say that, in addition to the risk of predators, Snapchat also promotes dangerous and even illegal sexual content.

“In fact, one co-founder has said that the idea for the app came from a desire to facilitate sexting via disappearing photos,” lawsuits claim.

Your child may qualify for a Snapchat lawsuit if they used the app regularly and went on to develop serious mental health conditions or experience exploitation.

You may be able to file a lawsuit if your child came into contact with a predator on Snapchat and experienced exploitation. This can include the solicitation of explicit images or in-person meetings and assault.

Exploitation can happen in different ways. It may originate on Snapchat, such as a user being “friended” by a predator through the Quick Add feature.

But contact may also originate on a different platform, like Roblox, before the predator then moves the conversation to Snapchat. Even if the conversation began on another app, you may still qualify to file a lawsuit against Snap.

You can file a lawsuit against Snapchat by speaking with an experienced product liability attorney. Certain law firms specialize in these types of cases and have years of experience litigating similar lawsuits.

Consumer Notice can connect you with a trusted legal partner for a free case review. They can evaluate the facts of your case and help you determine your eligibility. The process is confidential.

If you are eligible for a lawsuit, an attorney will handle the process of filing and litigating your case. They can determine the strategy behind the lawsuit and where it makes the most sense to file.

You only owe fees if your case is successful and you receive a settlement or a verdict.

So far, Snap has not agreed to a global settlement to resolve either the social media addiction or child exploitation litigation.

The social media addiction lawsuits are further along, with the first of those cases now advancing to trial. Early trials matter a lot for potential settlements. Losses for Snap could encourage the company to negotiate a broader settlement that covers multiple lawsuits, rather than risk taking more cases to trial.

The first social media addiction trial was set to involve multiple companies and was focused on a woman who began using social media at a young age and developed serious mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia.

A week before that trial was scheduled to begin, Snap agreed to a confidential settlement rather than risk going to trial. TikTok did the same several days later.

The parent companies behind Instagram and YouTube decided to take the case to trial, where they suffered a loss and were ordered to pay a combined $6 million to the woman.

The child exploitation lawsuits are earlier in the legal process. Many new cases are being filed.

As of May 2026, Snapchat lawsuits have been consolidated in two separate multidistrict litigations (MDL). MDLs are used when many similar lawsuits are filed in federal court. They place all of those cases before a single judge, who can then oversee the litigation.

MDLs facilitate a streamlined and accelerated legal process that can lead to faster results. Snapchat addiction lawsuits have been grouped together in a social media MDL with other claims involving Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Some Snapchat exploitation lawsuits have been consolidated in the Roblox MDL.

In addition to lawsuits filed by families and individuals, multiple states have also taken action against Snapchat in recent years. As of May 2026, six different states have filed lawsuits against Snap since the start of 2024.

State lawsuits generally claim that Snapchat has misled parents or misrepresented the safety features of its app. Some, like the lawsuit filed by Utah, claim that Snapchat was designed to be intentionally addictive to its users.

“This lawsuit against Snap is about accountability and about drawing a clear line: the well-being of our children must come before corporate profits,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox said in a statement at the time. “We won’t sit back while tech companies exploit young users. It’s time for commonsense protections that ensure a safer online experience for every minor.”