Parents blame Snapchat for role in children's deaths, urge action by Congress

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KABC) -- Parents rallied in front of Snapchat's headquarters in Santa Monica to protest what they say is the platform's responsibility for their children's deaths.

The parents say Snapchat fails to take adequate steps to protect children from buying illegal, dangerous and often mislabeled drugs through the online platform.

"We all lost our babies to a fentanyl-laced pill - and all of our stories are pretty much the same - that they purchased on Snapchat," protester Mahsa Jaeger said.

Jaeger says her 18-year-old daughter, Finale Jaeger, used Snapchat to purchase what she thought was pain medication. But she received pills laced with fentanyl.

"She had knee surgery, so she purchased pain pills she thought were Percocet. I said goodnight to her on Dec. 7 and woke up the next morning on Dec. 8 to find her lifeless body," Jaeger said.

Jaeger and other parents claim Snapchat is a marketplace for drug dealers peddling dangerous pills to children.

Amy Neville says her 14-year-old son Alexander died after taking pills he got from someone on Snapchat.

"He thought he was taking oxycodone. The drug dealer advertised it as oxycodone and told him it was oxycodone. The drug dealer knew his drugs were deadly," Neville said.

Congress held hearings in January which included testimonies from many social media platforms, including Snapchat.

The protesters demand that Congress step up and pass legislation that puts stricter limits on what Snapchat allows on its platform.

Amy and other parents want Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 scrapped, a law that provides online platforms with immunity from civil liability. It promotes free speech by removing strong incentives for platforms to limit what users can say and do online.

"The big picture is to put the responsibility back on the social media companies."

Snapchat issued the following statement:

"The fentanyl epidemic has devastated the lives of too many people, most particularly the families who have suffered unimaginable losses. Our hearts go out to them and we continue to work diligently to combat drug dealers from abusing our platform."