Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a lawsuit today against Snap, Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, alleging the social media giant knowingly violated state laws designed to protect minors from online harm.
The legal action, filed in accordance with Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and last year’s House Bill 3 (HB 3), accuses Snap of misleading Florida families about the dangers children face on its platform. The suit alleges that Snap both violated the state’s statutory requirements for youth social media access and failed to disclose harmful content and features embedded in the Snapchat app.
“We take the safety and security of children very seriously, and as part of our mission to make Florida the best place to raise a family, we are holding social media platforms that harm children accountable,” said Attorney General Uthmeier in a statement. “Snap is deceiving Florida parents about the dangers children face on the app, from behavioral addictive features to allowing sexual predators and drug dealers access, and we cannot allow this deception to continue.”
HB 3, which was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023, targets addictive design elements in social media platforms that encourage compulsive use. The law identifies five such features—four of which Snapchat allegedly uses, including infinite scrolling, push notifications, auto-play videos, and interactive metrics such as SnapStreaks.
Under HB 3, platforms using these features are prohibited from offering services to users known to be 13 or younger. Additionally, accounts for 14- and 15-year-olds require verified parental consent. The lawsuit asserts that Snap has knowingly continued to violate these provisions by marketing the app as appropriate for users aged 13 and older, despite admitting in other litigation that it falls under HB 3’s jurisdiction.
The complaint further alleges that Snap, Inc. fails to protect minors from harmful and inappropriate content, including exposure to pornography, profanity, drug use, and sexually suggestive themes. It also highlights the app’s role in facilitating contact between minors and potential predators or drug dealers, a concern that Florida’s legal framework explicitly aims to address.
“Rather than obeying Florida law, Snap is actively deceiving parents about the risks associated with using the platform,” Uthmeier’s office stated.
In response to the lawsuit, a Snap Company Spokesperson said: “This law does not adequately address age verification and infringes on the First Amendment rights of adults and young people while also opening Floridians up to data protection and privacy issues. We believe there are more privacy-conscious solutions to online safety and managing age verification, including at the operating system, app store, or device level. In addition, there is a current challenge to the constitutionality of this law pending in Florida federal court, and we hoped that the state would allow this challenge to proceed through the proper legal process. Unfortunately, they’ve decided to file a complaint in state court in an attempt to bypass the issues that are already being heard in federal court.”
The lawsuit marks a significant escalation in Florida’s effort to regulate tech companies and their influence on children. If successful, it could set a precedent for further actions against social media firms that operate within the state.
