Studies find Snapchat exposes children to sexual, violent content
Caroline MolloyChildren 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.
