Snapchat Faces Lawsuit Over Sexually Explicit Content | TechTree.com

Snapchat Faces Lawsuit Over Sexually Explicit Content

A lawsuit filed by a teenager an his mother in California lists several articles published under the app’s Discover section

 

Four years into its existence, Snapchat is facing a class-action lawsuit that accuses it of depicting sexually explicit content to minors without proper warning, a charge that could serious hamper the company’s efforts to position itself as a preferred multi-media and mobile application.

The lawsuit filed by 14-year-old John Doe and his mother in California (Read the full lawsuit in this article published by Hollywood Reporter) accuses the company of “an insidious pattern and practice of intentionally exposing minors to harmful, offensive, prurient and sexually offensive content without warning minors or their parents that they would be exposed to such content.”

A report published on Engadget (Read it here) says the court documents specifically mentioned some articles such as, “10 Things He Thinks When He Can’t Make You Orgasm” and “I Got High, Blown and Robbed When I Was A Pizza Delivery Guy”.

However, what the teenager and his family found the most objectionable was an article published on Buzzfeed.com that invited users to check out “23 Pictures That Are Too Real If You've Ever Had Sex With A Penis” in which movie stills from cartoon series were used with explicit captions.

However, the company, which was started by a group of students as part of their summer project at Stanford, claimed that they allowed content partners to have editorial freedom on creating streams for sharing on Snapchat. “We haven’t been served with a complaint in this lawsuit, but we are sorry if people were offended,” the company said in a statement.

While the app is rated 12+ on iTunes that suggests infrequent and mild alcohol / drug use references, crude humor, nudity and mature themes, it further adds that additional services “with additional terms that may require you to be even older to use”.

On their part, the complainants are actually seeking that these “additional terms” be implemented and clearly defined by the company. “While adults should be free to consume any of this material, and may themselves find it to be humorous and witty, the fact that Snapchat does not differentiate content offered to its minor users and adult users is problematic, and ultimately a violation of Federal and State consumer law,” the lawsuit says.

Snapchat came into being as a summer project for Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown in 2011. Over four years, the company has reportedly raised over USD 1.35 billion dollars in funding and is currently valued at over USD 20 billion. 


TAGS: Snapchat, lawsuit, California

 
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