UPDATE: Snapchat has REMOVED the Cosmo After Dark Channel from Discover as of 5/24/18. Cosmopolitan released a statement on Twitter confirming. Still NO confirmation from Snapchat within their Advertiser Guidelines that "Explicit Content" is age-gated (restricted based upon the birthdate entered in the user profile). So while I'm thrilled that Cosmo After Dark is no longer on the platform, I'm still eager to see a published statement / policy from Snapchat about their handling of similar and other explicit material moving forward. They do age-gate for ads involving alcohol so it can definitely be done... I just can't find confirmation that they're doing it.

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Snapchat is the social media platform of choice for kids aged 12 - 16. They are aware of their young demographic, yet recently launched (yet another) new X-rated Channel called Cosmo After Dark:

"We like to ask ourselves the important questions here at Cosmo, like: Can we turn your phone into the best sex toy ever? Enter Cosmo After Dark, our new Snapchat channel launching tonight. It’s an X-rated weekly edition that goes live every Friday at 6 p.m. and is exclusively dedicated to all things hot and horny."

Snapchat can't be sued for allowing this content, as Snapchat’s user agreement “bars class action filings and mandates all disputes go through arbitration.” So what can we, as parents, do? Nothing. You can't BLOCK channels, you can only request to "see less like this" when porn pops up in the Discover feed. Parental controls can't filter out specific channels within Snapchat.

This petition is a last-ditch effort to get Snapchat to DO SOMETHING. They could require that a user be 18 to unlock pornographic content. They could refuse to allow pornography on the platform. They could allow parents to block content marked as "Explicit" from our kids' accounts.

Perhaps if we get enough parents to sign, promising that WE WILL DELETE our kids Snapchat accounts if nothing is done, then they will make some changes. PLEASE SIGN and SHARE this petition if you want to protect young teens from pornography on Snapchat and pledge to delete your kids' accounts if nothing is done.