EU Probes Snapchat Over Suspected Child Protection Failings
Brussels : The European Union launched an investigation into Snapchat on Thursday over suspicions that the platform is not doing enough to protect children who use the app.
US messaging app Snapchat has nearly 97 million monthly active users across the 27-country bloc and is an extremely popular platform among teens and young adults.
The European Commission said it was investigating whether Snapchat breached digital content rules by “subjecting minors to grooming attempts” as well as information about the sale of illegal products such as drugs.
The investigation is the first into Snapchat under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a law that has come under attack from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Snapchat said the safety and well-being of its users is its “number one priority.”
“We are continually reviewing, strengthening and investing in these measures as online risks evolve,” a spokesperson said.
“To date, we have fully cooperated with the commission by working proactively, transparently and in good faith to meet DSA’s high security standards, and we will continue to do so,” the spokesperson added.
The commission, the EU’s digital watchdog, said its comprehensive investigation will focus on five areas to find out whether Snapchat provides high levels of safety, privacy and security for children online.
Snapchat is aimed at users aged 13 and over, but the EU suspects the app does not have adequate safeguards to prevent young children from accessing it.
Another fear is that Snapchat may not “adequately protect” children from being contacted by users who want to sexually exploit them or recruit them for criminal activities, for example by allowing adults to pretend they are minors.
The EU also suspects that Snapchat’s default settings do not provide “sufficient” privacy for children and that the platform’s tools are ineffective at preventing minors from viewing the sale of age-restricted products such as e-cigarettes and alcohol.
Finally, the investigation will focus on Snapchat’s mechanisms for reporting illegal content, the commission said; Accessing these mechanisms appears to be neither easy nor user-friendly.
“Snapchat appears to have overlooked that the Digital Services Act requires high security standards for all users. We will closely examine their compliance with this investigation,” EU technology czar Henna Virkkunen said in a statement. he said.
Snapchat is among more than 20 major online platforms that must comply with the DSA’s stricter rules or risk fines of up to six per cent of their global turnover and even bans for serious and repeated infringements.
There is no deadline for the investigation to be completed, but Snapchat could offer commitments to address the EU’s concerns.
