Snapchat

Is Snapchat safe for kids?

It is safer than its reputation in one way and riskier in another. Snapchat has no public like counts and no endless feed of strangers' posts in the chat, messages delete by default, and photo and video Snaps have been end-to-end encryptedEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary since 2019. But the same private, disappearing design makes it attractive to people trying to exploit teenagers, and several US states are suing Snap over sextortion, grooming and drug sales. We score it 50/100.

Disappearing does not mean private from Snap

Snap says that "Snaps and Chats are private and delete by default". That protects you from someone scrolling through your old messages. It does not mean Snap knows little about you.

Apple's privacy label shows contact info and identifiers used to track you across other companies' apps. Precise location, email, phone number, device ID and advertising data are used for third-party advertising, and Snap links purchases, location, contacts, photos and videos, search history and usage to your identity for analytics and personalisation.

My AI, the chatbot added in 2023, is the exception to disappearing messages. Snap says it retains what you send to My AI "until you delete the content in-App or delete your account", and uses that content and your location to personalise ads.

The child-safety lawsuits

Snapchat is where many teenagers do their private talking, and US state attorneys general argue that Snap knew this created risks it did not address.

• New Mexico (September 2024). After an undercover investigation, Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Snap. His office said internal documents showed Snap employees were aware of about 10,000 reports of sextortion on the platform every month in 2022.
• Arkansas (June 2026). Attorney General Tim Griffin sued under the state's deceptive trade practices law, citing sextortion rings, predatory grooming, violent content, illegal drug marketplaces and the My AI chatbot.
• Others. Florida and Utah filed their own suits in 2025, and Snap settled a Los Angeles personal injury case before the first social media addiction trial began in early 2026, while Meta and YouTube went to trial.

Snap disputes the claims and says it has added protections, such as limiting who can contact teens and warning teens when strangers message them. None of the state cases had reached a verdict by October 2026.

The regulatory record

In 2014 the FTC settled charges that Snapchat had misled users about how its messages disappeared and about the data it collected, putting Snap under a 20-year order. In January 2025 the FTC referred a complaint about My AI's risks to young users to the Justice Department. Snap has not received a large GDPRGDPRThe EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which sets rules on how organisations collect and use personal data and allows large fines.More in the glossary fine of the kind Instagram and TikTok have.

How sextortion on Snapchat works

The pattern is consistent. A new contact appears through Quick Add or a shared friend, often posing as a teenage girl. They move fast to flirting, send a fake image and ask for one in return. Within minutes they threaten to send it to the victim's friends and family unless paid, often in gift cards or crypto. Victims are mostly boys aged 14 to 17.

If it happens: do not pay, do not delete the account straight away (it holds the evidence), screenshot the threats, block and report the account, and report to the police. In the US, NCMEC's Take It Down service can help remove images.

Settings to change for a teen

1. In Settings, under Privacy Controls, set "Contact Me" to My Friends so strangers cannot message.
2. Turn off "Show Me in Quick Add" so the app does not suggest your teen to strangers.
3. Turn on Ghost Mode on Snap Map, or share location with a small list of named friends only.
4. Set up Family Center from the parent's phone to see friend lists and recent contacts.
5. Clear My AI data in Privacy Controls if your teen has used it, and talk about what not to tell a chatbot.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (35) is the weakest factor because of the sextortion evidence in state lawsuits, and privacy (40) is held down by precise-location ad targeting. Security (62) benefits from encrypted Snaps. Snapchat scores above Instagram and TikTok mainly on regulatory record (48). For gaming chats, see Discord.