Texas AG Sues Snapchat for Deception and Child Endangerment

Detected February 11th, 2026

Summary

The Texas Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Snap, Inc. (Snapchat) for allegedly deceiving parents and consumers about the app's safety and for exposing children to inappropriate content and addictive features. The lawsuit seeks to hold Snapchat accountable for these alleged harms.

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What changed

The Texas Attorney General's office has filed a lawsuit against Snap, Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, alleging deceptive practices that endanger children. The suit claims Snapchat misrepresented its safety features to parents and consumers, promoted the app with misleading age ratings, and exposed young users to inappropriate content including profanity, sexual material, nudity, and drug use. Furthermore, the lawsuit highlights features like 'Snapstreaks' as intentionally addictive, designed to harm young minds.

This action imposes significant legal risk on Snapchat, potentially leading to substantial penalties and requiring changes to its platform's design and marketing. Regulated entities, particularly social media companies targeting minors, should review their own compliance practices regarding content moderation, age verification, addictive design features, and transparency with consumers and parents. While this specific action is focused on Texas, it signals a broader trend of state-level enforcement against tech platforms concerning child safety and consumer deception.

Source document (simplified)

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Snap, Inc. (“Snapchat”) for failing to adequately warn parents and consumers about inappropriate material on the platform and the app’s addictive design.

The lawsuit alleges that creators of Snapchat knowingly misrepresented the app’s safety to parents and consumers by promoting it as safe for children and with “12+” age ratings on app stores. This was done while simultaneously frequently exposing users to dangerous and mature content that includes profanity, sexual content, nudity, and drug use. The lawsuit cites that multiple other features of the app, including “Snapstreaks” or other incentives to use the app daily, also cause harm to young minds due to the addictive nature of the features.

“I will not allow Snapchat to harm our kids by running a business designed to get Texas children addicted to a platform filled with obscene and destructive content,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Parents have a fundamental right to know the dangers of the apps their kids are using and not be lied to by Big Tech companies. This lawsuit will hold Snapchat accountable for illegally undermining parental rights, deceiving consumers, and for putting children in danger.”

This lawsuit follows legal actions that Attorney General Paxton has taken against several Big Tech and social media companies, as well as similar suits against TikTok and Roblox.

To read the lawsuit, click here.