EU targets Snapchat over child safety and accuses porn sites of failing to block minors

LONDON — European Union regulators are investigating Snapchat because they fear the platform is not doing enough to protect children and exposing them to risks such as increased vulnerability to child predators or recruitment by criminals.

The EU’s 27-nation Executive Commission announced Thursday that it was opening a formal investigation into Snapchat under the bloc’s sweeping regulation known as the Digital Services Act, designed to protect internet users.

The European Commission has said Snapchat requires users to be at least 13 to use the platform, but it suspects the company’s “age assurance” system is “insufficient” to prevent them.

Regulators said the system also doesn’t properly check whether a user is under 17, which it must do in order to provide them with an “age-appropriate” experience. They also worry that age-checking systems won’t stop adults from posing as minors.

The commission suspects Snapchat isn’t doing enough to protect minors from contact with “users with harmful intentions, such as sexual exploitation or recruitment for criminal activity.”

Snapchat’s systems are also not effective enough to prevent underage users from seeing information about illegal or restricted products like drugs, vapes or alcohol.

Snapchat “appears to have neglected” the DSA’s “high security standards for all users,” said Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for technological sovereignty, security and democracy.

The investigation will examine Snapchat’s compliance with European law, she said.

Snapchat has “fully cooperated” with the Commission by “engaging proactively, transparently and working in good faith to meet the DSA’s high security standards – and we will continue to do so throughout this investigation,” the company said in a statement.

User safety and well-being are a “top priority” and the platform is designed with “privacy and security built in from the start, including additional protection for teenagers,” it says.

The survey adds to the pressure faced by social media companies on both sides of the Atlantic when it comes to the well-being of young people. A California jury awarded millions of dollars in damages to a 20-year-old woman on Wednesday after ruling that Meta and YouTube designed their platforms to attract young users without regard for their well-being.

A day earlier, a New Mexico jury fined Meta $375 million after determining that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Meanwhile, the EU accused TikTok earlier this year of violating the DSA with “addictive design” features that lead to compulsive use by children, and has been investigating Facebook and Instagram since 2024 over child protection gaps.

Also on Thursday, Brussels accused four of the world’s biggest porn sites, Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos, of failing to protect children from adult content on their sites, following an investigation opened last year.

The Digital Services Act requires internet companies and online platforms to do more to protect European users from things like harmful content and suspicious merchandise, or face hefty fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover.

Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In their preliminary findings, regulators said the site’s operators failed to “diligently identify and assess” the risks to children and failed to use effective measures to prevent them from accessing their services.

“Children are accessing adult content at younger and younger ages and these platforms must put in place robust, privacy-respecting and effective measures to keep minors away from their services,” Virkkunen said.

Porn sites now have the opportunity to respond to the accusations before the commission makes a final decision.