By Jorge Casuso

February 17, 2026 -- Santa Monica made national headlines last week when families from across the nation gathered outside the offices of one of the city's biggest employers to protest the drug deaths of their children.

More than 40 parents held photos and painted the names of 108 fentanyl victims outside SNAP, Inc.'s headquarters near the Airport on Thursday to call attention to the dangers posed by the company's Snapchat app.

The Heat Initiative, the child safety advocacy group that organized the protest, says the popular app is used by drug dealers and sex predators to target vulnerable children.

"For years, families have watched their children die from fentanyl poisoning and sexual exploitation facilitated by Snapchat's design -- and for years, Snapchat has fought to avoid any meaningful accountability,” Heat Initiative officials said in a statement.

The families protesting are suing the company over Snapchat's "vanishing design feature" that gives teens "a false sense of security, leading them to believe their photos and messages disappear forever after being viewed."

This, the lawsuits charge, encourages them to share riskier content used by drug dealers and sexual predators to sell them illegal drugs, including fentanyl, and extort them for money or additional sexual favors.

Amy Neville, a resident of Aliso Viejo in Orange County who is a plaintiff in the lawsuits, said she lost her 14-year-old son, Alexander, in 2020 after he was sold fentanyl on social media.

“When he was 14 years old, it is my belief that he was connected with a drug dealer on Snapchat that ultimately talked him into trying some things that maybe he hadn’t intended to try,” Neville told City News Service.

“He ended up losing his life over it,” Neville said. “I really believe that he took one pill one night, and I found him dead in his bedroom the next day.”

According to unredacted portions of a lawsuit filed by Utah State officials, Snap "internally admitted being 'over-run' with sexual extortion and that it 'takes under a minute to use Snapchat to be in a position to purchase illegal and harmful substances.'"

The portions released last July 29 also reveal that 96 percent of "abuse reports" filed with Snapchat’s in-app reporting feature are "not reviewed by the app’s Trust and Safety Team," Utah officials said.

Thursday's protest took place three weeks after Snap, Inc. became the first major social media platform to settle a landmark lawsuit claiming major tech companies deliberately addict children ("Santa Monica Tech Company Settles Landmark Lawsuit," February 11, 2026).

The following week, TikTok followed suit, leaving Instagram parent Meta and Alphabet's YouTube to fight a lawsuit expected to expose internal conversations and findings that could prove embarrassing to the mega companies, according to media reports.

The trial in California Superior Court is intended to test whether social media platforms can be treated as inherently defective products subject to personal injury liability.

Snap, Inc. issued a statement concerning Thursday's protest saying the company "unequivocally condemns the criminal conduct of the drug dealers whose actions led to these tragedies.

"Addressing the fentanyl crisis demands a united front, bringing together law enforcement, government officials, medical professionals, parents, educators, tech companies, and advocacy organizations," the statement said.

"We have long recognized the urgency of this issue and have devoted substantial resources to combating illegal activity on our platform, including decisive action against drug dealers."

Snap, Inc. is Santa Monica's sixth largest employer, with its workforce of 1,575 employees making it a driving force behind the city's rise as a regional tech hub.