Parents Protest at Snapchat HQ, Blame App for Children Fentanyl Overdoes

Dozens of parents rallied outside the Snapchat offices in Santa Monica Friday, blaming the app for their children’s deaths and demanding changes to core features.

Holding photos of their children, the protesting parents alleged that their kids, often teens, purchased drugs from users on Snapchat, leading to eventual fentanyl overdose deaths.

“Do they really want to be the company that’s known for dead children?” Amy Neville, one of the protest organizers from Laguna Niguel, told L.A. Weekly. “They have the power to change. They can set an amazing example to other social media companies if they did make that change.”

After the overdose death of her son in June 2020, Amy started the Alexander Neville Foundation, named after her son.

Neville said her son’s “inquisitive nature” unfortunately led him to drug use, using Snapchat to communicate with the dealer. It was June 23, 2020, that Amy made her way to Alexander’s room, where she found him lying on his beanbag chair, pale-faced and unresponsive. She later found that Alexander was using what he thought was oxycontin, but as she and many of the other parents at the protest learned, the drugs were laced with fentanyl.

Now, Neville has made it her life’s purpose to raise awareness of where kids are obtaining drugs like fentanyl and warn parents that the drug crisis can affect anyone.