Snapchat is accused by some 50 American parents of facilitating the purchase of drugs. Thanks to the application, children and teenagers would have access to products that would be much more complicated to obtain otherwise.
The United States is going through a serious crisis related to the synthetic opioid Fentanyl. The origins of this real epidemic go back to the beginning of the 90s, and the authorities do not seem to find a solution against this scourge that affects the entire American population. Worse still, the advent of social networks has facilitated access to drugs. Anyway, that’s what’s going on. a group of parents, which attacks Snapchat and its parent company SNAP, in justice. The plaintiffs claim that their children were able to buy drugs all too easily through the photo and video sharing app.
Amy Neville, a US citizen whose 14-year-old son died of a fentanyl overdose, testified: of children have died from apps like Snapchat. They have made these dangerous products accessible to our children”. According to the 50 parents who are suing the company, Snapchat has “ignored the harm it causes users and left the reins of the app to drug traffickers”.
Snapchat facilitates access to drugs, dealers no longer hide
Snapchat offers tools for parents to get better visibility into how their teens are using the social networking app. These new features are unfortunately not enough to satisfy American parents. We can even say that SNAP’s goodwill turned against the company, since it was probably thanks to this supervision tool that the plaintiffs were able to determine that their children obtained drugs through social networks.
Can Snapchat be held responsible for this situation? It’s up to the courts to decide, but we see it a little more every day, technology companies are struggling to moderate and control the content they convey, especially since the popularity of social networks is exploding. Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, underlined it in May 2022: the regulation of social networks will not replace the moral responsibility of users and their parents.
Source: PhoneArena