Get the latest tech news

New Mexico sues Snap over its alleged failure to protect kids from sextortion schemes

New Mexico's attorney general has sued Snapchat over its alleged failure to protect children from sextortion, sexual exploitation and other harms on Snapchat.

In its complaint [ PDF], the agency accused the app of being “a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them.” It states that "criminals circulate sextortion scripts" that contain instructions on how to victimize minors. “Our undercover investigation revealed that Snapchat's harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement. “Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold and stored indefinitely.

Get the Android app