LOCK THEM UP –
Dec. 3, 2025 – Nearly two thirds of 13 to 17-year-olds in the UK have a Snapchat profile. And the company claims it has nearly a billion monthly active users.
The documents we found show that some users have deeply unhealthy relationships with the platform … They also show that staff were well aware of this. In fact, Snapchat staff have repeatedly raised concerns about the risks to young users’ mental health posed by some of the platform’s key features – all of which are still central to the app today.
The company told us that the allegations in the case “fundamentally misrepresent our platform”. They said: “The safety and well-being of our community is a top priority.”
The material includes extracts from thousands of pages of testimony and internal company documents. Some of the original documents remain under seal, meaning we have only seen the legal excerpts. One issue that recurs in the emails is the platform’s potentially addictive qualities. In an internal planning discussion from 2020, one employee apparently hinted at the company’s unspoken ambition to make the platform more addictive to its users.
