By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -Florida sued Snap, the owner of photo-sharing app Snapchat, on Tuesday, accusing it of illegally employing features that addict children and opening accounts for children age 13 and younger.
The complaint said Snapchat features including infinite scrolling, push notifications, auto-play videos, and metrics that provide user feedback violate a 2024 state law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, and designed to protect children’s mental health from compulsive social media exposure.
Florida called Snap’s conduct “particularly egregious” because the Santa Monica, California-based company markets Snapchat as safe for 13-year-olds though it can be used to view pornography and buy drugs, among other harmful activities.
By failing to remove 13-year-old users and require parental consent for 14- and 15-year-old users, “Snap is actively deceiving Florida parents about the risks of allowing their teens to access this platform,” the complaint said.
The complaint was announced by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and filed in a Santa Rosa County state court, in the state’s panhandle. Uthmeier and DeSantis are Republicans.
In a statement, Snap said Florida’s law infringes the First Amendment constitutional rights of adults and children.
Snap also said there are “more privacy-conscious solutions” at the operating system, app store and device level to address online safety and age verification.
Two technology industry trade groups, NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, are challenging the Florida law’s constitutionality in the federal court in Tallahassee, the state’s capital.
The case is Florida v Snap Inc, Florida Circuit Court, Santa Rosa County, No. 25000258CAAXMX.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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