The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Los Angeles County District Attorney on July 9, 2024, announced a complaint and proposed stipulated order against NGL Labs, LLC, and two NGL co-founders concerning the “NGL: ask me anything” anonymous messaging app. The complaint alleges that NGL marketed the app to children and teens despite awareness of cyberbullying risks from the app to these groups, sent fake messages to drive up usage, knowingly collected the data of children without parental consent, made deceptive claims about the app and its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to filter out harmful messages, and failed to disclose recurring subscription fees. Notably, the order resolving the claims requires NGL to bar anyone under age 18 from accessing its service through a neutral age gate, which is the first time the FTC has required a business to block minors from an online service.