The 27-nation EU’s executive Commission said Thursday it was opening a formal investigation into Snapchat under the bloc’s sweeping rule book known as the Digital Services Act that’s designed to protect internet users.

The European Commission said that Snapchat requires users to be at least 13 to use the platform but it suspected that the company’s “age assurance” system is “insufficient” at keeping them off.

Regulators said the platform is also exposing teens to inappropriate content because it’s not properly checking whether a user is under 17. And they worried that age checking systems aren’t preventing adults from posing as minors.

The commission suspects Snapchat isn’t doing enough to protect minors from being contacted by “users with harmful intent, such as sexual exploitation or recruitment for criminal activities.”

Snapchat’s systems also aren’t good enough at preventing underage users from seeing information about illegal or restricted products like drugs, vapes or alcohol.

Snapchat “appears to have overlooked” the DSA’s “high safety standards for all users,” said Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

The investigation will scrutinize Snapchat’s compliance with EU legislation, she said.

Snapchat has “fully cooperated” with the Commission by “engaging proactively, transparently and working in good faith to meet the DSA’s high safety standards – and we will continue to do so throughout this investigation,” the company said in a statement.

User safety and well-being is a “top priority” and the platform is designed with “privacy and safety built in from the start, including additional protection for teens,” it said.

The probe adds to pressure that social media companies are facing on both sides of the Atlantic over the welfare of young people. On Wednesday, a California jury awarded millions of dollars in damages to a 20-year-old woman after deciding that Meta and YouTube designed their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well being.

Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. and TikTok were also included in the lawsuit but settled for undisclosed sums before the trial.

A day earlier, a New Mexico jury handed a $375 million penalty to Meta after determining the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Meanwhile, the EU accused TikTok earlier this year of breaching the DSA with “addictive design” features that lead to compulsive use by children, and has been investigating Facebook and Instagram since 2024 over child protection shortcomings.

Also Thursday, Brussels accused four of the world’s biggest pornographic websites, Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX and XVideos, of failing to protect children from adult content on their websites, following an investigation opened last year.

The Digital Services Act requires internet companies and online platforms to do more to protect European users from things like harmful content and suspect merchandise, or risk hefty fines worth up to 6% of annual revenue.

In preliminary findings, regulators said the site operators failed to “diligently identify and assess” risks to children. They criticized the sites for letting people, including minors, “self-declare” that they are over 18 by merely clicking a link, and said additional measures such as page blurring and warning labels aren’t enough.

Officials said age verification tools are needed.

“Children are accessing adult content at increasingly younger ages and these platforms must put in place robust, privacy-preserving and effective measures to keep minors off their services,” Virkkunen said.

Stripchat and XNXX did not respond to requests for comment while XVideos pushed back against the findings.

“The European Commission is asking us to commit suicide for nothing,” XVideos said in a statement. “Adding age checks on four sites out of a million does nothing to prevent minors from accessing adult content, as we know they will simply move to other, less safe sites that are completely out of reach of regulators — contrary to what the Commission claims — and will cause a massive regression and loss of control.”

And the parent of Pornhub said its moderation and verification go “well beyond what the law requires.”

“Our goal is to get age verification right,” said a spokesperson for Aylo, the parent company. “Our experience across multiple jurisdictions shows that current website-level age-verification solutions often fail, driving users toward unregulated sites with little or no safety infrastructure, and raising serious data privacy concerns.”

The porn sites now have chance to formally respond to the accusations before the commission issues a final decision.

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That’s the message of officials who staged the Kid Safe Summer event Wednesday morning, July 2, in Loma Linda.

First 5 San Bernardino and Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital hosted the session to offer tips on protecting children, especially those 5 and younger.

Gathering at the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University, officials demonstrated how kids can be safe in the water, in vehicles that can heat up along with the temperatures and how to correctly install a car seat.

Their suggestions included:

• Take swimming lessons: These sessions get kids familiar with the water and teach them to get out of a pool should they fall in.
• Consider life jackets: U.S. Coast Guard-approved jackets can improve water safety, but are no substitute for supervision.
• Use barriers around pools: Proper fencing or netting can help avoid accidents.
• Beware of hot cars: Don’t leave children in a parked car as temperatures inside can quickly climb to more than 120° on a hot day — even with the windows slightly open.
• Check the back seat: Before leaving a vehicle, always check to make sure you’re not forgetting a child.
• Seek shade, use sunscreen: Babies and toddlers have thinner, more sensitive skin. Kids should take breaks in the shade, wear wide-brimmed hats and sun shirts and use sunscreen. It’s best for those under 6 months old to be kept entirely out of the sun, The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests.
• Stay hydrated: Kids can dehydrate faster than adults. Keep them drinking water.
• Car seat basics: Be sure car seats are installed properly. Remember that those under 2 years old must be facing the rear.

For more safety information from First 5 San Bernardino, click here.

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On most weekends, the sprawling North Hollywood complex echoes with the shouts of hundreds of boys and girls, as vendors hawk aguas frescas, balloons and candy along the sidelines.

But recently, immense grief and worry have settled over this close, Latin American community.

Just last week, a well-known coach and Salvadoran national was charged with murder in the killing of 13-year-old soccer player Oscar Omar Hernandez during a lewd or attempted lewd act and then dumping the boy’s body in a roadside ditch in Ventura County. The coach, Mario Edgardo Garcia Aquino, who has not yet entered a plea, has also been charged with sexually assaulting another teen and investigators say there are probably more victims who have yet to come forward.

The teen’s slaying has left many in the youth soccer community profoundly shaken. Some say their faith in a long-trusted institution has been broken, and they question why the coach wasn’t scrutinized more carefully before he was allowed to work so closely with children.

“We have never seen anything of this magnitude,” said José Torres, president of the Proyecto 2000 Soccer League in the San Fernando Valley.

The allegation comes at a time when many families are feeling increasingly vulnerable to anti-immigrant sentiment and threats of deportation by the Trump administration — a factor that could complicate the reporting of other possible crimes.

The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department have insisted that immigration status will not be an issue for those who step forward to report alleged sexual assaults.

“We’re not going to ask about that,” Sheriff Robert Luna said.

But it wasn’t long after authorities charged 43-year-old Garcia Aquino with the crimes that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seized on his immigration status.

“13 year-old Oscar ‘Omar’ Hernandez was an innocent child who was exploited and killed by this depraved illegal alien who should have never been in this country,” the DHS said on X. “Child predators, pedophiles and murderers will be hunted down and removed from America’s communities.”

On a recent Saturday, a flier with a photo of the victim hung from a Whitsett Fields lamppost as parents spoke to a Los Angeles Times reporter in hushed tones, so that their children would not overhear.

One mother, who declined to give her name, said she tells her children not to talk to strangers — but if the charges are true, what good is that if the person they have to fear is someone they know and trust?

Iris Rodriguez, who sells bacon-wrapped hot dogs at the park, said she had met Omar when he first arrived in California, and that she soon became close to his parents and siblings. His killing feels like a death in the family for so many immigrants in the North Hollywood community, Rodriguez said.

“Everyone that is a mother is horrified about what happened, because how could a person do that?”

A community devastated

During a memorial service at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in East Hollywood earlier that Saturday, mourners wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the boy’s photo, the words “Forever 13” and the letters LLO — Long Live Omar.
Many recalled him as a quiet, thoughtful and trusting boy.

He and his mother arrived in Los Angeles from the small town of Marcala in Honduras three years ago while his father and the rest of his siblings had already established themselves in the Sun Valley neighborhood.

The boy’s older sister, Alejandra Hernandez, said she sometimes chided her brother for being so trusting, and told her brother that he didn’t always have to talk to people if they greeted him.

“He came from Honduras and we grew up there in the countryside, so we don’t have people like that there, people who are so bad, so crazy,” she said.

An avid soccer player who adored Real Madrid and Lionel Messi, Omar played for Huracan Valley Soccer Club, where he met his accused killer.

In the wake of Omar’s death, authorities and youth soccer officials have revealed a history of complaints and concerns involving Garcia Aquino, who two people said managed to avoid background checks and criminal charges.

The lapses have unsettled those who knew both the victim and the accused.

“We have to support one another at this time,” said Arcelia Martinez, family friend and parent of a student at Sun Valley Magnet School where Omar was a seventh-grader. She said there are no words to describe his death and how it has wounded immigrants from Central, South and North America.

“We’re all just the same people and only God can take away a life,” Martinez said Saturday.

Classmates described Omar as someone who wanted to support his family as soon as he could start working.

“He was like my brother because he usually told me that I was like his sister,” said his friend Magavi Davila, 12.

The students sobbed as Omar’s family carried his gray casket out of the church.

His mother, Gladys Hernandez, appeared to collapse within sight of the hearse. His siblings and father wailed together on the sidewalk as they said goodbye.

His older brother, Josué Hernandez, gripped Omar’s blue soccer jersey in his hands as the hearse pulled away.

‘There are a lot of people in fear’

Omar’s family last saw the boy boarding a Metrolink train to meet with Garcia Aquino at the coach’s home in Lancaster. He planned to help the older man make soccer jerseys, according to his family. When he did not come home, his family reported him missing on March 30.

When his brother tried to phone him later that day, the coach answered the boy’s cellphone and said Omar was busy and could not talk, according to police.

According to the family and investigators, Daniel Hernandez, the boy’s father, later called the coach and insisted he drop the teen off near the family’s home. Investigators used data from cellular devices, cellphone towers and other tracking systems to determine that the suspect visited the Oxnard area near McGrath State Beach and the Santa Clara River, according to law enforcement sources, who were not authorized to discuss the probe.

Omar’s parents have received an outpouring of support following his death, but they’ve also seen numerous videos criticizing them for letting their son travel alone, according to Omar’s sister.

“‘You just have to focus. You don’t know people, you don’t know how evil people can really be,’” Alejandra Hernandez said she told her mother. “I tell her, ‘We come from a village, maybe we are not the kind of people who see the wrong in people.’”

The family were unaware of prior complaints against Garcia Aquino and how he managed to skirt background checks as a traveling soccer coach playing with independent leagues, according to two other youth soccer officials. Independent leagues are seen as being more informal than those affiliated with the U.S. Soccer Federation, the primary governing body for American soccer.

Shortly after he was charged with Omar’s killing, prosecutors also charged Garcia Aquino with assault and performing a lewd act on a 14-year-old boy in December 2022 at his then-home in Sylmar.

Some officials who lead and coordinate soccer leagues say they had their suspicions about Garcia Aquino and that he refused to submit to background verifications.

“We can’t trust anyone,” said Marco Carballo, president of the Naciones Unidas Soccer League, who has spent more than 30 years working in local soccer, many of them at Whitsett Fields Park.

In three decades working in the San Fernando Valley, Carballo said he had never seen anything like Omar’s slaying.

“There are a lot of people in fear,” acknowledged Carballo, who said that Garcia Aquino’s team was not affiliated with Naciones Unidas.

“About eight years ago, he wanted to join my club, but he never wanted to submit to his fingerprints,” recalled Álvaro Chávez, director and president of the U.S. Soccer affiliated Spartans FC. After Garcia Aquino failed to submit to the requirements, Chávez barred him from his club.

Chávez believes that Garcia Aquino remained in independent leagues because he was unwilling to submit to the paperwork required by youth associations affiliated with U.S. Soccer.

According to Chávez, Garcia Aquino acted as a team sports director, but would direct a team coach to fill out the registration forms. Although Garcia Aquino’s name would not appear on the paperwork, he would still travel to competitions and coach from the sidelines.

The vast majority of independent leagues have their own rules and don’t follow the requirements of official associations, so they don’t have to subject their coaches or managers to a background check, Chavez said.

“The local leagues need to require fingerprints, the coach’s record,” he said.

Jorge Rodriguez, president of the California State Soccer League, said Garcia Aquino was affiliated with his league but had to be disaffiliated in 2022 because of an alert in its registration system.

The alert was triggered by an LAPD investigation into accusations of sexual assault on a minor, but the coach was not charged at the time because the alleged victim refused to testify against him, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

“I told him, ‘You can’t be with the boys, not even near, not from far, you have to stay away from them until you solve this problem,’” Rodriguez said. Garcia Aquino denied the allegations, and was never again involved in any tournaments organized by Rodriguez.

Torres, president of the Proyecto 2000 Soccer League, said he dealt with Garcia Aquino on several occasions. Although he always considered him an “ordinary and normal” person, he clarified that he was not affiliated with his competitions either.

Cal South Soccer, which is affiliated with U.S. Soccer, had once included Huracan Valley in its organization, but that arrangement appears to have ended several years ago. Cal South declined to answer questions from The Times about its oversight of Huracan Valley, but did release the following statement:

“Our deepest sympathies go out to his family, teammates, and friends during this incredibly difficult time. We take player safety very seriously and will support law enforcement in any way we can,” the statement said.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 976 by state Sen. Nancy Skinner, which prohibits online platforms from knowingly providing an addictive feed to minors without parental consent. The law also stops social media platforms from sending notifications to minors during school hours and late at night — from midnight to 6 a.m. — while they sleep.

By Jan. 1, 2027, social media companies will have an obligation to know the age of their users and implement the requirements under SB 976, making children much safer on social media.

This law will save countless lives here in California, like our eternally 16-year-old son Sammy, who had a drug dealer driven to him by the algorithms on Snapchat, delivering a lethal dose of fentanyl to him like a pizza, after we were asleep. This law will help stop dangerous content from invading our homes through our children’s devices, help our kids pay better attention in school and get more sleep at night.

Although, like California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act passed two years ago, SB 976 will surely be challenged by the powerful lobbying groups funded by tech companies. It could be tied up in court for years.

Challenges to the law will likely be along the lines of a First Amendment violation or the oft-mentioned Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which essentially treats the internet like a blackboard. You can’t sue a blackboard for what someone writes on it, but the internet is far from whatever blackboard it may have resembled in 1996.

A recent ruling in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that artificial intelligence and the algorithms they direct are not human speech and therefore not protected by the Constitution. It’s time for Congress to amend Section 230 and treat the social media industry like any other industry in our country, allowing parents like me to sue for negligence when our children die with the help of repeated social media messages inducing harm or pushing them toward illegal activities.

Harms such as suicide baiting, human trafficking, dangerous challenges like the “choking game,” and drug and firearm sales to minors will be minimized on social media thanks to SB 976, ultimately making California safer for our youth.

Its necessary sister bill, Assembly Bill 3216, authored by Assemblymember Josh Hoover and three others, was also just signed by our governor. School districts will be required to adopt a policy to limit or ban phones on school campuses by July 1, 2026, except in emergencies or with teacher permission as part of a lesson plan.

Smartphones turn into an addiction for many children. They check them incessantly, fidgeting with them in class when the teachers aren’t looking and easily miss important information. Grades may even improve if attention spans can return to normal.

Taken altogether, we can hope to see students more focused at school, learning more and feeling less anxious.

California has long been a leader in technology but that also makes it home to companies that helped create these dangers. Now the state can lead the way in cleaning up the mess we’ve made, helping keep other families from feeling the endless sorrow ours feels from the loss of our son.

Let’s hope these protections catch on around the country. Hopefully, as we say here: As California goes, so goes the nation.

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