The European Commission has started a formal investigation into Snapchat to check whether the platform is doing enough to protect children’s safety, privacy, and security under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission believes Snapchat may have failed to properly protect minors. There are concerns that children could be exposed to harmful situations, such as grooming, recruitment into criminal activities, and content related to illegal goods like drugs or restricted items such as vapes and alcohol.
One major issue is age verification. Snapchat requires users to be at least 13 years old, but the platform mainly relies on users declaring their age themselves. The Commission thinks this system is not strong enough, as it does not effectively stop younger children from joining or ensure that users under 17 get age-appropriate experiences. It also appears that users cannot easily report accounts belonging to children under 13.
Another concern is the risk of harmful contact. The Commission suspects that Snapchat is not doing enough to prevent adults from pretending to be minors and contacting young users for harmful purposes, including exploitation or criminal recruitment.
The investigation also looks at default account settings. Snapchat may not be offering strong enough privacy and safety protections by default. For example, young users can be easily discovered through the “Find Friends” feature, and notifications are turned on automatically. New users are also not clearly guided on how to manage privacy and safety settings.
There are also worries about illegal and restricted products being promoted on the platform. The Commission believes Snapchat’s moderation tools may not be effective in stopping content related to drugs or age-restricted items, and that minors may still be able to access such content.
Another issue is how users report illegal content. The current reporting system may be difficult to use and could include misleading design elements. The Commission also suspects that Snapchat does not clearly inform users about how to complain or seek solutions if issues arise.
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The investigation will now move forward with deeper analysis. The Commission may collect more evidence, ask for more information, and carry out inspections. Depending on the findings, it could take further action, including penalties or requiring Snapchat to make changes.
