State of Arkansas, Snap Go Back and Forth in Court

Social Media,

The State of Arkansas and social media company Snap are still going back and forth in court over a consumer protection lawsuit Attorney General Tim Griffin filed in June.

Snap’s Snapchat app lets users send photos and videos — called “Snaps” — that automatically disappear after being viewed. As of 2026, the platform boasts an estimated 493 million active daily users — many of whom are teenagers.

But the social media app has been at the center of multiple controversies regarding sexting and grooming.

In a lawsuit filed on June 23, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin alleged Snapchat exploits young users and exposes them to dangers like “sextortion rings, predatory grooming, violent content, illegal drug marketplaces, unrealistic beauty standards, and an untested My AI chatbot that delivers dangerous and inappropriate advice to minors.”

The attorney general’s team says Snap has failed to provide “even basic safeguards” for kids.

In response, Snap successfully moved the lawsuit from state court to federal court. The company has filed court documents indicating it participates in programs designed to educate people about digital safety and protect kids online. The case is currently before Judge Brian Miller, whom President George W. Bush appointed to the federal court in 2008.

Attorney General Griffin has asked Judge Miller to remand the case to state court.

The lawsuit against Snap is similar to other lawsuits Attorney General Griffin has filed against social media companies.

In 2023, Attorney General Griffin sued Meta — the company that owns Facebook and Instagram — for intentionally designing its social media platforms “to exploit human psychology and foster addiction to maximize users’ screen time.”

Meta recently resolved that lawsuit as part of a $17 billion settlement the company reached with dozens of attorneys general from around the country.

In 2023, Attorney General Griffin also filed two lawsuits against ByteDance — the company that owns TikTok.

Those legal complaints call the TikTok app “a Chinese ‘Trojan Horse’ unleashed on unsuspecting American consumers.” The A.G.’s team says that TikTok deceptively labeled its app as being appropriate for ages 13 and up when it really should have been rated 17+. Attorney General Griffin’s office is still actively pursuing its lawsuits against TikTok in Arkansas court.

A growing body of evidence shows that social media platforms may deliberately addict users, promote objectionable content, and put people’s personal information at risk. Parents need to understand what these platforms may be doing to children.

Social media platforms are more than just phone apps or websites.

These are multibillion-dollar businesses with CEOs, boards of directors, investors, and development teams. The adults who profit from these businesses need to be held accountable when they harm innocent people — especially teens.

Children deserve proactive protection online. If tech companies won’t protect children, then voters and policymakers must do it.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Two More Hospitals Agree to Stop Performing Sex-Change Procedures on Children

Transgender, ,

The federal government is continuing to shut down gender clinics that perform dangerous, irreversible sex-change procedures on children.

Over the past 20 years, the number of children who identify as transgender has skyrocketed — especially among biological girls.

Many hospitals opened “gender clinics” that prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids or even performed sex-change surgeries on children. But since then, public health experts and policymakers in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support these “gender transitions.”

Now state and federal officials are taking serious steps to protect children and shutter these “gender clinics.”

On September 18, the U.S. Department of Justice announced New York University Langone Hospitals (NYU) and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) — two of the nation’s largest healthcare systems — have agreed to stop subjecting children to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries. The agreement resolves federal investigations into the facilities.

This is really good news.

Puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change procedures carry serious risks — like infertility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density, and cardiovascular problems.

Today we know pro-LGBT activists and medical organizations spent years citing each other’s work in a circular pattern, manufacturing a fake consensus about performing sex-change surgeries on kids.

Investigators have alleged that some of the healthcare professionals who performed these procedures may have committed insurance fraud to improperly profit from what they were doing.

Whistleblowers have come forward to testify about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the procedures’ risks, consequences, or alternatives.

Stories like these have prompted investigations and legal action against doctors and facilities that performed these procedures on children.

In 2021, Arkansas’ lawmakers passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Arkansas was the first state in America to enact a law like the SAFE Act, but since 2021 lawmakers in more than half the country have passed similar legislation. Federal courts have upheld the SAFE Act and other state laws like it as constitutional.

Arkansans should be proud that their state has been a leader when it comes to protecting children from dangerous sex-change procedures.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Arkansans Wagered $56.6M+ on Sports in August

Gambling,

Arkansans wagered more than $56.6 million on sports betting in August, according to data Family Council received from the Department of Finance and Administration.

Sports betting is legal to varying degrees across most of the country, and Arkansans are on track to wager nearly a billion dollars on sports this year. But a growing body of evidence shows sports betting is corrupting sports and ruining lives.

Federal prosecutors have announced indictments in connection with bribery and point-shaving schemes to fix college basketball games.

Major League Baseball players have been accused of rigging pitches to defraud sportsbooks. The NFL and the NBA have also dealt with corruption and scandals tied to sports betting.

The Institute for Family Studies (IFS) reports almost one in four young men say they gamble daily. That’s concerning, because research shows that young men who wager on sports may be at increased risk of physical and mental harm. Some studies have also linked legal sports betting to increases in divorce, binge drinking, domestic violence, and violent crime.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, researchers at UCLA, and bankruptcy attorneys across the country all say sports betting is driving a wave of financial problems like credit card delinquencies and bankruptcies.

Can Arkansans really afford to wager millions of dollars on sports every month?

Family Council has prepared a list of practical steps Arkansas could take to address predatory sports betting.

As powerful corporations try to make gambling part of everyday life, it’s important for Arkansas to protect its citizens and families from predatory gambling. Otherwise, gambling addiction will simply continue wrecking lives and hurting families in our state.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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