We work to keep Snapchatters safe

At Snap, we continually evolve our security mechanisms and platform policies to limit the ability for bad actors to abuse our platform. We use advanced technology to detect and block activities that break our rules, we apply design principles to create friction in the friendship process, we support law enforcement, work with government agencies, and work to raise awareness and give of educating about the most serious harms impacting teens, and indeed all members of our community.

We take our responsibility to protect teenagers very seriously. Our work is substantial and includes the following:

I. Making Snapchat a hostile environment for bad actors

Earlier this year we did announced new features to further protect our community, especially teen users, and strengthen the real-world relationships that make Snapchat unique. These updates include: expanded in-app alerts for suspicious contacts, improved friendship protection built specifically for teens, and improving the ability to block unwanted contact.

These changes, aimed at combating online sextortion, build on our continued investments to fight back against all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse. For example:

We use signals to identify sextortion behavior so we can actively remove bad actors before they have a chance to target and victimize others. This is in addition to leveraging and deploying technology designed to prevent the spread of known child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEAI) images on Snapchat, including PhotoDNA (to detect duplicates of known illegal images), CSAI Match (to duplicates of known pirated images) videos) and Content Safety API (to help detect new, “never before hashed” images).

While we have long offered simple in-app reporting of content and accounts that violate our rules, we have done so in 2023 improvements to strengthen our fight against sextortion-related harm. Last year we launched in-app chat text reporting, which allows Snapchatters to report individual messages directly from the conversation itself. We also expanded our in-app reporting tools to include a specific, tailored reporting reason for sextortion and, with the advice and guidance of CSEA-fighting NGO Thorn, we presented that reporting option in recognizable language for teens and young people (“They leaked/threatened to leak my nudes”). These reports are in turn used as the basis for our enforcement efforts, including signal-based detection and enforcement. We analyze trends, patterns and techniques of sextortionists and if an account shows certain characteristics, it will be blocked for extortion.

We continue to improve and expand Family Center set of tools, released in 2022, that will allow parents to see who their teen is friends with on Snapchat, who they’ve chatted with recently, and easily report accounts that may be of interest to them. Our goal for Family Center has always been to encourage open and constructive dialogue between parents/guardians and teens about staying safe online.

We to collaborate working closely with law enforcement, and investing heavily in our security and law enforcement teams that operate 24/7 around the world to keep our community safe. For example, our Trust and Safety teams have more than doubled in size since 2020, and our Law Enforcement Operations team has more than tripled in size in that time. We organize annually tops for US law enforcement to ensure that officials and agencies know how to take appropriate action against any illegal activity occurring on our platform.

We are also working directly with law enforcement authorities in Nigeria – where many cases of extortion originate – to build capacity and knowledge to investigate and prosecute perpetrators, and we intend to continue our collaboration with the Nigerian government to further cooperation in this area. And we’ve worked with the International Justice Mission, NCMEC, other industry members and NGOs to provide training to law enforcement on investigating CyberTips in countries outside the US where sex tortion is common.

For years, we’ve worked with a robust cadre of “trusted flaggers”: nonprofits, NGOs, and select government agencies who escalate cases of abuse, impending life threats, and other emergencies to us on behalf of Snapchatters in need through high-priority channels. The majority of participants in our Trusted Flagger program report content and accounts related to sexually-related harm to minors, including extortion.

II. Involving sector experts and coalitions

In addition to our own investments, we also work with experts around the world because we know that no single entity or organization alone can meaningfully advance these issues. For example, Snap represents the industry on the international Policy Board of the WeProtect Global Alliance; we are a member of the Advisory Board of INHOPE and sit on the Board of Trustees of the UK Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). All of these organizations have the eradication of online CSEA at the heart of their mission.

We remain active members of the Tech Coalition, a global industry alliance focused on combating online child sexual exploitation and abuse, and recently completed a two-year term on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. We were also founders of the The Tech Coalition’s Lantern Initiativethe first cross-platform signal sharing program to help companies strengthen the way they enforce their child safety policies. By actively participating in this program, companies can help each other monitor for bad actors, including sextortionists.

We also use the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) Take it down database, which allows minors to generate a digital fingerprint (a so-called ‘hash’) of selected images or videos directly on their devices. Participating companies, including Snap, can then use these hashes to find and remove duplicate images that violate our guidelines Community Guidelines. We participate in a similar program in the UK called Report Remove, and we joined last year SWGfLs StopNCII collaboration to help prevent the spread of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) on Snapchat by leveraging that group’s hash database. StopNCII helps stop the spread of intimate images of 18+ people and gives victims the opportunity to claim privacy over their most personal photos and videos.

This year we do too launched our inaugural Snap Council for Digital Well-Being, a group of 18 teens from across the U.S. selected to participate in a yearlong pilot program advocating for safer online habits and practices in their schools and communities. In July, this group, along with at least one parent or guardian, met at Snap headquarters in Santa Monica, California for discussions that provided interesting insights on topics such as online pitfalls and social dynamics, and parental tools. This is in addition to Snap’s Safety Advisory Board, consisting of 16 professionals and three youth advocates, who provide Snap with direct guidance and direction on safety issues. We look forward to 2025, where we hope to create more opportunities for members of both groups to come together and gain additional insights.

III. Stimulate awareness

In addition to our internal investments and the work we do with experts and across industries, raising public and Snapchatter awareness is a critical part of the fight against online sexual abuse and extortion.

In 2022 we launched the Digital Wellbeing Indexleading research that provides insight into how teens and young adults are doing online on all platforms. As part of this research we have been doing for the past two years delves deep into sextortion. Because this research covers online experiences in general, and not just on Snapchat, it not only helps inform our work, but we hope it also provides insights to others in the tech ecosystem. Later this month, we will share the results of our second year sextortion deep dive, in conjunction with the Technology Coalition’s upcoming virtual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on the Financial Sextortion of Minors.

Earlier this year, we were honored to be the first entity to provide support Know2Protecta first-of-its-kind public awareness campaign launched earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The campaign educates and empowers youth, parents, trusted adults and policymakers to help prevent and combat crimes such as financial extortion. In addition to donating ad space on Snapchat for K2P educational resources, we are conducting additional research among teens and young adults in the US to further inform the campaign. Us too co-launched an augmented reality Snapchat lens to help inform Snapchatters through an interactive Know2Protect quiz. And in Britain we have so far supported the IWF’s broad awareness campaign on these issues. Gurls out louddesigned to inform girls aged 11 to 13 about online sexual grooming, sexting and sending nude photos. In addition, we recently added a Teacher’s Guide to Snapchat, working with Safe and Sound Schools to develop a comprehensive education program toolbox for teachers with information and guidance on how to combat sextortion.

Based on our years of research, we know that awareness and community education are powerful tools to help prevent online harm. We continue to develop and promote in-app resources to reach teens and youth directly on Snapchat. In September 2023 we will have four new in-app “Safety Snapshot” episodes targeting sexual risk and harm, including financial extortion. We also offer episodes on sexting and the consequences of taking and sharing nude photos, grooming children online for sexual purposes and child sex trafficking. All of these resources have been reviewed by experts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and created in collaboration with relevant hotlines and helplines in key regions.

We continue to fight against online child sexual exploitation and abuse, but there is still more to do. In 2025, we will continue to raise awareness about potential online harm and reiterate that anyone can be a potential target. We want to disrupt and thwart bad actors early and often, and we want to produce even more actionable CyberTips for law enforcement.

It is important to note that we use many of the same strategies when we fight back against other serious harms, such as illegal drug activities, included the sale of counterfeit pills, threats of violence, and suicide and self-harm. We realize our work in this area may never be done, but we care deeply about the safety of Snapchatters and will continue to work together across the industry, government and law enforcement agencies to share information and strengthen our defenses.