Studies find Snapchat exposes children to sexual, violent content

Children and teenagers who use Snapchat regularly are frequently exposed to graphic violence, sexual content, drug-related material, and unwanted contact from adult strangers, according to two new studies released by the child safety advocacy group Heat Initiative.

The findings, detailed in a July 8 essay by Heat Initiative President Brooke Istook, combine a national survey of adolescent Snapchat users with an experiment examining the content the platform's recommendation system served to accounts registered as 13-year-olds.

"With nearly one-third of American 9- to 12-year-olds and more than half of 13- to 17-year-olds using Snapchat daily, it's essential for parents — and for the people designing technical, legal, and cultural solutions — to understand what kids actually experience on the platform," Istook wrote.

The survey of 1,000 U.S. adolescents ages 10 to 17, conducted in December 2025, found that unwanted contact from other users was the most commonly reported unsafe experience, with 36% of respondents saying they encountered it during the previous year. Another 31% reported seeing bullying or mean behavior, while 25% said they encountered sexually suggestive content.

"Across all of the experiences we asked about, one in three young people reported encountering unsafe content or messages weekly or more, including approximately one in eight kids who encountered sexually suggestive content at least weekly," Istook wrote. She added that children ages 10 to 12 reported harmful experiences at rates similar to teenagers and that preliminary data suggests they may encounter self-harm content at roughly twice the rate of older users.

In the second study, the Heat Initiative partnered with ParentsTogether Action to create two Snapchat accounts registered as 13-year-olds on clean Android devices. Each account spent six hours passively viewing content recommended by Snapchat's algorithms and followed 50 creator accounts the platform suggested for users of that age.

Unwanted contact from strangers

Snapchat's "Find Friends" feature lets users connect through username searches, contact syncing, and friend recommendations. Despite Snapchat’s 2022 policy limiting friend recommendations for minors, the Heat Initiative found that 51% of respondents ages 10 to 17 received recommendations to connect with people they did not know. 

Researchers said two new Snapchat accounts registered as 13-year-olds also received recommendations for unknown adults despite having no mutual connections. One suggested profile linked to an adult content creator's Reddit page labeled "slutwife," while another promoted marijuana sales, according to the report.

"While Snapchat's teen accounts can only receive messages from mutually accepted contacts by default, if a teen accepts these adult 'friend' recommendations, it opens up the opportunity for the adult to message them directly," Istook wrote.

More than 90% of unwanted messages came from strangers, and 85% arrived through direct messages or chats. About one-quarter included sexual images, spam, profanity, bullying, or requests for nude photos.

"[The unwanted messages] made me feel upset and uncomfortable, and sometimes I just wanted to ignore it and move on," a 16-year-old boy from the West told researchers.

Sextortion reports

The survey found that 4% of respondents experienced sextortion on Snapchat, an online blackmail scheme in which perpetrators threaten to share sexual images, and the rate rose to 11% among “LGBTQ+” respondents ages 10 to 17. Citing Snap CEO Evan Spiegel's estimate of 20 million U.S. teen users, Istook estimated that roughly 800,000 teenagers were targeted on the app over the past year. 

Istook also cited 2024 research by Thorn and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children identifying Snapchat and Instagram as the leading platforms for financial sextortion. Court documents released in New Mexico's lawsuit against Snap showed the company received about 10,000 user reports of sextortion each month in 2022 and concluded the reports represented only a fraction of cases. The documents also said Snap believed sextortion "should not be its responsibility" and responded to about 90% of reports with automated messages telling users to block the other person.

Sexual content

One in four surveyed minors reported encountering sexual content or messages on Snapchat, most often through direct messages or chats. In testing, two accounts registered as 13-year-olds were recommended 244 sexually suggestive videos over six hours — about one every three minutes — including 21 depicting relationships with large age gaps between adults and children, according to the report.

"It made [me] feel unsafe and exploited when I saw these images and it kinda [made] me uncomfortable to use the app," a 14-year-old girl from the South said.

Graphic violence

About one in eight respondents said they encountered graphic or violent content on Snapchat, most often in Stories or direct messages. During testing, the two 13-year-old accounts were recommended 95 videos promoting violence, gang activity, or criminal behavior — about one every seven minutes — including footage of killings, gory crime scenes, and videos glorifying gangs, according to the report.

"It made me feel shocked, worried, and dirty; I felt unsafe seeing violent images on Snapchat, and it worried me for days," a 14-year-old girl from the Midwest said.

Self-harm and suicide content

Seven percent of surveyed youth said they encountered self-harm or suicide content on Snapchat over the past year, most often through direct messages or chats. During testing, two accounts registered as 13-year-olds were recommended 53 self-harm or suicide videos over 12 hours, or about one every 13 minutes, according to the report.

"The self harm and hate-related posts made me feel anxious and uncomfortable, and they really affected the way I viewed the platform," a 16-year-old boy from the Northeast said.

Drug and alcohol content

Seventeen percent of respondents said they encountered drug- or alcohol-related content on Snapchat, and more than half of those said they saw posts advertising drugs or were offered drugs by another user. During testing, the two 13-year-old accounts were recommended 256 drug- and alcohol-related videos — about one every three minutes — including videos showing drug use and marijuana cultivation, according to the report.

"It made me feel weird seeing kids my age selling drugs online," a 12-year-old boy from the South said.

Kids often stay silent

Only 39% of surveyed children said they told a trusted adult after an unsafe experience on Snapchat. More than half, 54%, said they stayed silent because they had become "used to it."

"I thought it was annoying, but part of life these days," a 15-year-old respondent said.

Legal and regulatory response

The reports come as lawmakers and courts increase scrutiny of social media platforms' treatment of minors. Istook noted that thousands of families and more than 1,000 school districts continue to sue major social media companies, including Snap.

Istook argued that responsibility should not rest solely with children or parents.

"Asking kids to be more resilient, or parents to monitor harder, is no longer realistic or fair," she wrote. "This is not just a parenting challenge, it is a product-design and accountability problem."