Snap has been sued for the rape of a minor who had contact with an adult attacker on Snapchat. Image source: AP
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, is facing a lawsuit in the US state of Missouri, after the parents of a girl claimed that features on the social media platform enabled an adult man to contact and sexually assault their daughter when she was 12 years old.The lawsuit, filed in Missouri state court on Wednesday, names Snapp and Gabriel Joel Valentin Rios, who has already pleaded guilty to rape of minors and is serving an 18-year state prison sentence.
What the lawsuit states
The complaint indicates that the girl began using Snapchat in 2021 at the age of 11 without her parents’ knowledge. While the platform requires users to be at least 13 years old, the lawsuit claims that the children were aware that they could easily bypass the age verification process.The family claims Snapchat’s recommendation system later suggested that the girl and other teenage girls from nearby schools were potential contacts of Valentin Rios, an adult who allegedly had no connection to them.According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit also claims that the platform did not warn users about the risks associated with communicating with strangers.After contacting the girl, Valentin Rios allegedly began sending explicit photos.
According to the lawsuit, the child “did not want these photos, nor did she initially reciprocate, but Snapchat’s product design made it impossible for her to avoid such explicit content.”Court filings also allege that Snapchat’s Snap Maps feature revealed the location of the girl’s home to Valentin Rios without her knowledge.The lawsuit states that Valentin Rios falsely represented himself as a 17-year-old local high school student when he was actually 25 years old.
He groomed the girl over time before convincing her to meet him in person, where she was later raped.Also read: 11-year-old Delhi girl kidnapped, raped and murdered near Mehrauli-Gurgaon border; 1 contractThe family also alleges that Snapchat failed to act despite knowing that Valentin-Rios was running multiple accounts on the platform, including one allegedly used to contact teenage girls.In response to the lawsuit, Snap said: “We care deeply about the safety and well-being of all Snapchat users, and our teams have worked for years to build safeguards, launch safety education programs, partner with experts, and work with law enforcement to help prevent abuse of our platform.”The girl has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are seeking damages and a court order requiring changes to practices they claim expose children to harm.Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Legal Center, which is representing the family, said the platform’s design played a central role in the case.Bergman said: “This attack did not happen in a vacuum, but rather happened because the design of the Snapchat product made it easy for a predator to access and manipulate an unsuspecting child.”“Snap executives have long known that its features create an ideal environment for predators to exploit children, yet they have repeatedly failed to make the platform safe,” he added.The Missouri case comes amid broader legal challenges facing Snap over child safety issues.
It is not an isolated case
In 2024, the state of New Mexico filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that Snapchat’s design facilitated sextortion, sexual assault, and unwanted contact between adults and minors.
According to that lawsuit, the company knew that sextortion was a “huge and incredibly disturbing problem” on Snapchat, but failed to adequately warn parents, users, and the public.The judge rejected Snap’s attempt to dismiss the case.There are also separate lawsuits pending against the company, including a Vermont case involving two 12-year-old girls who were allegedly sexually assaulted after meeting an adult via Snapchat.