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By Shivani Ramanathan
“Snapchat is not harmless messaging anymore, strangers know exactly where teens are, how to contact them, and that is not even what scares me the most,” worried Malini Alagappan.
Alagappan is a concerned local parent who has been learning about the dangers of Snapchat for a few years.
Snapchat is known for disappearing messages, sending pictures to friends, and recording videos with filters. But behind the doors and all the exciting Ariana Grande filters, “dozens, potentially over a hundred, young people have died”. Today, Snapchat is being used as an easy gateway for drug dealers to introduce and sell counterfeit pills to innocent teenagers.
Across the United States, parents are suing the social media company, Snapchat Inc, arguing how the social media platform allows illegal drug sales to spread due to the disappearing chat histories. After 24 hours, all the chat histories are permanently deleted, allowing drug dealers to communicate location, persuasion, and other dangers to teenagers. The disappearing message also makes it more difficult for parents and law enforcement to track conversations between the teens and the drug dealers.
Drug dealers are using Snapchat to friend request teenagers and advertise counterfeit pills that look identical to real prescription medications. For example, a teen could request an abortion pill (behind the counter) which could look like a regular pill such as adderall, but many of these pills are laced with deathly fentanyl, which is an opioid that can cause a history of health effects. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) claims how “depressing the central nervous system and respiratory system. Because of its high potency, a dose as small as 2 milligrams can be fatal”.
Although there is no preventive way to stop teenagers from engaging with this business, parents and schools can implement free fentanyl test strips in their communities. All one needs to do is crush the pill, mix it with water, stick the strip down the solution, wait two minutes and they will be able to tell if the strip contains fentanyl or any other opioid.
In one California case, a judge allowed lawsuits against Snapchat to move forward, stating how temporary messaging and location tools can be unsafe applications for minors.
However, legal experts say that these cases can be exceptionally difficult due to Section 230, a federal law that protects tech companies from liability. This law was originally created for internet growth, but people now claim that it is a scapegoat for companies to avoid responsibility.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl-releated overdoses have become one of the leading causes of death in teenagers and young adults in the United States. A PBS report discussed how deaths involve counterfeit and behind-the-counter pills which are purchased through social media platforms, where this crisis continues today.
Behind every single notification, every disappearing message, and every filter could be a deadly decision, and for many families, the cost has already been paid.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
