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AI Chatbot Draws Scrutiny in Snapchat Fentanyl Row as Parents Protest

AI Chatbot Draws Scrutiny in Snapchat Fentanyl Row as Parents Protest

Parents protest outside Snapchat headquarters in Santa Monica over fentanyl related deaths facilitated through app's disappearing messages.
February 15, 2026 05:32 PM IST | Written by Vaibhav Jha
Dozens of parents have demanded a ban on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot of popular social media platform Snapchat over fentanyl related teenage deaths, enabled by the platform’s disappearing messages.  Parents accused Snap Inc. the parent company of Snapchat, of not doing enough to prevent minors from accessing the platform for dangerous activities. Last Thursday, over 40 parents along with advocacy group Heats Initiative held a protest outside Snap Inc headquarters in Santa Monica, urging the company to bring tighter safeguards over the app and disabling its AI chatbot. While the Snapchat Fentanyl related deaths is a raging controversy, the app’s in-built AI chatbot has become a new flashpoint as parents believe it puts minors at risk. In a joint statement issued to reporters in Santa Monica, parents have called for a ban on the AI chatbot of Snapchat, as they believe it adds another layer of security risk for children because of the human-like conversation of bots.

What is the Snapchat Fentanyl Death Controversy?

Since 2022, multiple lawsuits have been filed against TikTok and Snap, after teenagers/young adults purchased counterfeit pills laced with Fentanyl on these apps thereby resulting in fatal overdoses. The main contention of the lawsuits is that “disappearing messages” feature of the Snapchat app has enabled drug dealers to contact minors and evade detection. While AI is not directly related to the Fentanyl deaths, parents have called upon its ban, claiming its unsupervised interaction with minors adds to the security risk by creating emotional dependency.

Author

  • Vaibhav Jha

    Vaibhav Jha is an Editor and Co-founder of AI FrontPage. In his decade long career in journalism, Vaibhav has reported for publications including The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, and The New York Times, covering the intersection of technology, policy, and society. Outside work, he’s usually trying to persuade people to watch Anurag Kashyap films.

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