Families Urge Snapchat to Make Safety Changes to App – MyNewsLA.com

More than 40 families, whose children died as a result of social media harms, Thursday rallied outside of Snap Inc. headquarters to urge the company to make changes on their social media application for the protection of youth. These families arrived by charter bus to Santa Monica Business Park, where they blocked off the road leading into Snap Inc.’s buildings. The families along with child-safety advocates from Heat Initiatives began painting the names of 108 children and young adults on the road. Families said their loved ones died due to harms they experienced while using Snapchat, which involved access to drugs and other illicit substances, online bullying and sexual exploitation. The group urged Snap Inc. to implement safety measures such as the removal of all addictive features, default minor users to the most private settings, remove features that facilitate harmful connections with adults, disable any artificial intelligence chat-companion, implement age assurance, and to stop algorithms that promote harmful information, drugs and child sexual abuse. A representative for Snap Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amy Neville, a resident of Aliso Viejo, in Orange County, lost her son, Alexander, in 2020. “When he was 14 years old
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