A 14-year-old boy and
his mother have filed a lawsuit against Snapchat, alleging that the
photo- and video-sharing app's Discover service routinely exposes minors
to sexually explicit content without warning them or their parents.
The
lawsuit, which was filed Thursday by celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos in
US District Court for Central California, accuses Snapchat of violating
the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 law intended to regulate
pornographic material on the internet.
Snapchat, once known as
the "sexting" app of choice because photos sent on the service disappear
after a set length of time, has been branching out into original
content to attract new users. The John Doe lawsuit specifically focuses
on Discover, which was launched in January 2015 to serve editorial and
multimedia content from major brands such as BuzzFeed, Fusion, MTV and
Cosmopolitan.
The complaint alleges that the unnamed boy was
exposed to Disney characters in sexually explicit conditions as part of a
photo collage titled "23 Pictures That Are Too Real If You've Ever Had
Sex With A Penis" served up on the Discover channels from BuzzFeed. The
lawsuit goes on to list several other articles with similarly suggestive
titles the boy was exposed to during the first week of July.
"Millions
of parents in the United States today are unaware that Snapchat is
curating and publishing this profoundly sexual and offensive content to
their children," the lawsuit says. "By engaging in such conduct directed
at minors, and making it simple and easy for users to 'snap' each other
content from Snapchat Discover, Snapchat is reinforcing the use of its
service to facilitate problematic communications, such as 'sexting,'
between minors. Snapchat has placed profit from monetizing Snapchat
Discover over the safety of children."
Apple's App Store rates
Snapchat as appropriate for users 12 and older, although its terms of
service specify users should be at least 13 years old.
Representatives
for the Venice, Calif.-based startup said they couldn't comment on the
lawsuit but apologized for any offense taken.
"We haven't been
served with a complaint in this lawsuit, but we are sorry if people were
offended," a Snapchat spokesman said in a statement. "Our Discover
partners have editorial independence, which is something that we
support."
The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, seeks
civil penalties as well as an in-app warning about the possible sexual
content.