Summary
Snapchat is one of the most-used social media platforms among young people in Austria: 65% of 11- to 17-year-olds use the app, 85% of them daily (Jugend-Internet-Monitor 2026). Despite this, the platform has received less research attention than platforms such as TikTok or Instagram.
We tested what young Snapchat users actually get shown when they engage with beauty and fitness content. Using four test profiles, we analyzed 700 minutes of feed content and identified 226 problematic videos – from cosmetic procedures to prescription substances and surreptitious advertising. Minors were shown a problematic video every 2.8 minutes on average. The results reveal a systemic risk under the DSA, with the platforms falling short of its obligations to protect minors.
Key Findings:
▪️ Minor test profiles were shown a problematic video every 2.8 minutes on average
▪️ Female beauty profiles were affected roughly twice as often as male fitness profiles, regardless of age
▪️ For the 13-year-old persona, nearly a third of problematic content involved Botox treatments
▪️ Looksmaxxing content — including performance-enhancing and prescription-only substances — dominated what male profiles were shown
▪️ 93% of the 104 items identified as commercial were not disclosed as advertising
▪️ The documented accumulation of health- and development-endangering content constitutes a systemic risk under the Digital Services Act (DSA)
Legally, these findings amount to a systemic risk under the DSA. As a Very Large Online Platform, Snapchat is obligated not only to identify such risks to minors but to actively mitigate them.
Recommendations
Recommender system: content normalising prescription-only substances or carrying problematic beauty ideals to minors must not be algorithmically amplified.
Advertising transparency: the near-total absence of advertising labels in the beauty and fitness sphere must be adressed.
Enforcement and research access: competent authorities must enforce existing rules, and independent researchers need functioning data access under Art. 40 DSA, so that studies like this no longer depend on fabricated profiles.
DSA Monitor — funded by netidee.
