The dad and mom of a woman who was raped when she was 12 years outdated by an grownup stranger she met on Snapchat have sued its guardian firm, Snap, and the attacker in Missouri state courtroom.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday claims the social media firm has refused to disable harmful options in its app or warn dad and mom about potential harms it could trigger.
In response to the lawsuit, the woman started utilizing Snapchat in 2021, when she was 11, with out her dad and mom’ data.
Whereas the app requires customers to be 13 to enroll, the lawsuit says the woman doesn’t bear in mind what beginning date she entered and that kids knew they may simply bypass the minimum-age requirement.
A few 12 months after she started utilizing Snapchat, the lawsuit says the app beneficial her and teenage women from close by excessive colleges as mates to defendant Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios, an grownup who had no real-life connections to them.
It didn’t warn the youngsters that connecting to strangers may be harmful.
After the woman and Valentin-Rios linked, Valentin-Rios started sending her unsolicited nude pictures, the lawsuit says.
The woman “didn’t need these pictures and, at first, didn’t reciprocate however Snapchat’s product design made it inconceivable for (her) to keep away from such express content material,” it says.
As a part of its Snap Maps function, the app additionally offered Valentin-Rios with the woman’s house handle with out her data, in response to the lawsuit.
Valentin-Rios then groomed the woman, convincing her that he was a 17-year-old native highschool boy, not a 25-year-old man.
Finally he obtained her to satisfy him in particular person and raped her.
Valentin-Rios pleaded responsible to statutory rape and is at present serving an 18-year jail sentence in Missouri.
The lawsuit claims Snapchat knew that Valentin-Rios had a number of accounts — though it’s in opposition to the app’s insurance policies — together with one he used to lure teen women.
“We care deeply concerning the security and well-being of all Snapchatters, and our groups have labored for years to construct safeguards, launch security tutorials, accomplice with consultants, and work with regulation enforcement to assist stop the misuse of our platform,” Snap stated in an announcement.
The woman has been identified with PTSD, nervousness and despair, in response to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs search unspecified damages and are asking the courtroom to compel Snap to cease practices that hurt kids.
“This assault didn’t occur in a vacuum — it occurred as a result of Snapchat’s product design made it straightforward for a predator to succeed in and manipulate an unsuspecting baby,” stated Matthew Bergman, founding father of the Social Media Victims Legislation Heart, which introduced the swimsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs. “Snap executives have lengthy recognized that their options create an ideal setting for predators to take advantage of kids, but they’ve repeatedly did not make the platform secure.”
This isn’t the primary such lawsuit in opposition to Snap. New Mexico sued the corporate in 2024, saying the platform’s design options foster sextortion, sexual abuse and undesirable contact from adults to minors.
In response to the lawsuit, Snap was effectively conscious, however did not warn dad and mom, younger customers and the general public that “sextortion was a rampant, ‘large,’ and ‘extremely regarding problem’ on Snapchat.” A choose denied the corporate’s movement to dismiss final 12 months.
There are additionally particular person lawsuits pending in opposition to the corporate, together with one in Vermont on behalf of two 12-year-old women who have been sexually assaulted by an grownup they met on Snapchat.
