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<\/a><\/a>\nAccording to the complaint, Snapchat\u2019s core design features \u2013 including disappearing messages, location\u2011sharing tools, Bitmoji avatars, and its Quick Add friend\u2011recommendation engine, among others \u2013 created a dangerous environment for minors that Snap knew predators routinely exploited. The lawsuit asserts that these product choices directly facilitated the predator\u2019s access to J.F., enabling him to groom, manipulate, and ultimately assault her.<\/p>
\nIn late 2021, J.F. should have been spending time with friends, going to school, and enjoying her childhood. Instead, Snap\u2019s Quick Add algorithm recommended an adult predator, Gabriel Joel Valentin\u2011Rios, to her as a \u201cfriend,\u201d even suggesting they shared mutual real\u2011world friends.<\/p>
\nSnap\u2019s Bitmoji avatar system allowed him to create a fake profile and disguise himself as a harmless teenage boy, depriving J.F. of any ability to recognize that she was communicating with an adult male who was targeting young girls. Valentin\u2011Rios exchanged thousands of messages with J.F., her cousin, and other minors who believed he was a local high school boy.<\/p>
\nOver several months, Valentin\u2011Rios groomed, used sextortion, and pressured J.F. into exchanging explicit photographs. On September 16, 2021, he coerced her into meeting him in person and raped her.<\/p>
\nSnap also allowed Valentin\u2011Rios to create multiple accounts in violation of the company\u2019s own Terms of Agreement. One of these accounts, \u201cNocits21g\u201d was created a week before the assault on J.F. to target other teen girls. Snap\u2019s Quick Add feature connected the account to more than a dozen young girls ages 12 to 16 whom he then allegedly sexually solicited and\/or abused.<\/p>
\nIt also contends that Snap made a deliberate decision to allow its product to be used by children under the age of 13, even when those users openly disclosed their age through public posts, photographs, references to their school, and other clear indicators of being underage.<\/p>
\n\u201cSnapchat\u2019s design choices created the conditions that allowed a 25\u2011year\u2011old predator to find, groom, and sexually assault a 12\u2011year\u2011old child,\u201d said Matthew P. Bergman<\/a>, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center. \u201cThis assault did not happen in a vacuum \u2014 it happened because Snapchat\u2019s product design made it easy for a predator to reach and manipulate an unsuspecting child. Snap executives have long known that their features create a perfect environment for predators to exploit children, yet they have repeatedly failed to make the platform safe.\u201d<\/p> \nIn 2024, Snap executives received a 133\u2011page child\u2011abuse manual known as the \u201cSextortion Handbook,\u201d published on the dark web, which explicitly \u201cfocuses on the use of Snapchat.\u201d The author claims to have blackmailed more than 3,000 girls and provides detailed instructions on exploiting Snapchat\u2019s design features to target minors. The Handbook instructs predators to use Snapchat\u2019s Quick Add feature to connect with large numbers of children, Snap Map to identify nearby schools and to view Stories posted by students.<\/p> \n\u201cSnapchat\u2019s design failures didn\u2019t just create risk \u2013 they created the exact conditions that allowed a 25\u2011year\u2011old predator to reach and exploit a Missouri child,\" said Eric D. Holland, founding member of the Holland Law Firm in St. Louis. \"Families deserve to know the truth about how these platforms actually operate, and this lawsuit is an important step toward getting those facts into the open right here in the courts of the Show-Me State. For too long, social media companies have hidden behind secrecy while their products expose children to preventable harm. This case will help lift the veil on the choices Snap made \u2013 choices that made it easier for predators to hide, easier to contact minors, and harder for parents to protect their kids.\u201d<\/p> \nJ.F.\u2019s experience is not an isolated incident. Law enforcement agencies globally report that over 80 percent of child\u2011sexual\u2011grooming cases involve Snapchat, making it the most widely used platform for online grooming in the world.<\/p> \nGabriel Joel Valentin\u2011Rios, who lived in St. Charles County, Missouri, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting J.F. and is currently serving an 18\u2011year prison sentence.<\/p> \nThe lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of St. Charles County, Missouri.<\/p> \nAbout the Social Media Victims Law Center<\/b><\/p> \nThe Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), socialmediavictims.org<\/a>, was founded in 2021 to hold tech companies legally accountable for the harm they inflict on vulnerable users. SMVLC seeks to apply principles of product liability to force tech companies to elevate consumer safety to the forefront of its economic analysis and design safer products to protect users from foreseeable harm.<\/p>