Snap Hit With Texas AG Suit Over Addictiveness, Teen Safety (2)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued Snap Inc. Wednesday saying the Snapchat creator misrepresented the app’s safety to parents by promoting it as safe for kids over the age of 12 despite having addictive features and inappropriate content.

The lawsuit comes shortly after Snap settled claims ahead of a landmark trial in California Superior Court, Los Angeles County over the addictiveness of social media platforms. The trial, which will continue against Meta and Google, will center on whether technology giants designed platforms like Instagram and Youtube to deliberately hook children on social media at the expense of their mental health.

Paxton alleged Snap deceived Texas consumers about the damage the addictive nature of ephemeral content, infinite scroll, and autoplay features can have on young users.

The lawsuit was filed in the Texas District Court, Collin County following an investigation by the attorney general’s office. The suit brings claims under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices—Consumer Protection Act and the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act.

“I will not allow Snapchat to harm our kids by running a business designed to get Texas children addicted to a platform filled with obscene and destructive content,” Paxton said in a press release. “Parents have a fundamental right to know the dangers of the apps their kids are using and not be lied to by Big Tech companies. This lawsuit will hold Snapchat accountable for illegally undermining parental rights, deceiving consumers, and for putting children in danger.”

Snap didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

State attorneys generals have signaled a greater enforcement role in kids online safety issues. Kentucky’s attorney general sued popular chatbot maker Character.AI for exposing minors to sexual conduct, exploitation, and substance abuse earlier this year. Additionally, a lawsuit from New Mexico’s attorney general accusing Meta of fostering the exchange of child sexual abuse material went to trial.

“Something has gone wrong in the lives of American teenagers,” Paxton’s complaint said. “A robust body of research shows that social media use is responsible for the nationwide teen mental health crisis.”

The complaint said social media is driving the increase in mental health problems by causing behavioral addiction, or the inability to resist engaging in behaviors that are compelling in the short-term but detrimental in the long-run.

“Excessive and addictive use of social media by young people is a direct result of the intentional design choices of the owners of certain social media platforms, including Snap,” the complaint said.

In addition to infinite scrolling and video auto-play, Snapchat utilizes a plethora of addictive features like push notifications and personal interactive metrics like Snapstreaks to contribute to the app’s addictiveness by eliminating stopping cues, the complaint said.

Without stopping cues, “people tend to allow an episode of use to continue by default” and overuse social media, the complaint said.

Snap knows these features can affect young users’ mental and physical health, but doesn’t warn users or their parents about them and instead affirmatively represents the app as safe for young users, the complaint said.

Additionally, Snap says the app contains infrequent profanity, sexual content, and drug use content so it is appropriate for users over 12.

But “those representations are lies” and the app is “rife with extremely mature content in all of those categories,” the complaint said.

Paxton is requesting civil penalties as well as a permanent injunction stopping Snap from making misleading representations about Snapchat’s age rating, addictive nature, and presence of adult-content.

Cooper & Kirk PLLC and The Buzbee Law Firm are also representing the state.

The case is Texas v. Snap Inc., Tex. Dist. Ct., No. 366-00890-2026, complaint filed 2/11/26.