Snap sued over rape of minor who connected to adult attacker on Snapchat

The dad and mom of a lady who was raped when she was 12 years previous by an grownup stranger she met on Snapchat have sued its dad or mum firm, Snap, and the attacker in Missouri state court docket.

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 might trigger.

In keeping with the lawsuit, the woman started utilizing Snapchat in 2021 when she was 11 with out her dad and mom’ information. Whereas the app requires customers to be 13 to enroll, the lawsuit says the woman doesn’t bear in mind what start date she entered and that youngsters knew they may simply bypass the minimum-age requirement.

A couple of 12 months after she started utilizing Snapchat, the lawsuit says the app really helpful her and teenage ladies from close by excessive colleges as associates to defendant Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios, an grownup who had no real-life connections to them. It didn’t warn the kids that connecting to strangers could be harmful.

After the woman and Valentin-Rios linked, Valentin-Rios started sending her unsolicited nude images, the lawsuit says. The woman “didn’t need these images and, at first, didn’t reciprocate however Snapchat’s product design made it unimaginable 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 residence deal with with out her information, in accordance with 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 bought her to fulfill him in individual and raped her.

Valentin-Rios pleaded responsible to statutory rape and is presently serving an 18-year jail sentence in Missouri.

The lawsuit claims Snapchat knew that Valentin-Rios had a number of accounts — although it’s towards the app’s insurance policies — together with one he used to lure teen ladies.

Snap didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark Wednesday afternoon.

The woman has been recognized with PTSD, nervousness and melancholy, in accordance with the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs search unspecified damages and are asking the court docket to compel Snap to cease practices that hurt youngsters.

“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 achieve and manipulate an unsuspecting little one,” mentioned Matthew Bergman, founding father of the Social Media Victims Regulation Heart, which introduced the swimsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs. “Snap executives have lengthy identified that their options create an ideal setting for predators to take advantage of youngsters, but they’ve repeatedly didn’t make the platform secure.”

This isn’t the primary such lawsuit towards Snap. New Mexico sued the company in 2024, saying the platform’s design options foster sextortion, sexual abuse and undesirable contact from adults to minors. In keeping with the lawsuit, Snap was properly conscious, however didn’t warn dad and mom, younger customers and the general public that “sextortion was a rampant, ‘large,’ and ‘extremely regarding concern’ on Snapchat.” A decide denied the corporate’s movement to dismiss final 12 months.

There are additionally particular person lawsuits pending towards the corporate, together with one in Vermont on behalf of two 12-year-old ladies who had been sexually assaulted by an grownup they met on Snapchat.