In a tragic case, the family of a young girl who fell victim to a sexual assault at age 12 by a stranger she encountered on Snapchat is taking action against its parent company, Snap, as well as the attacker, with a lawsuit in Missouri state court.
The legal complaint, submitted on Wednesday, argues that the social media giant has neglected to deactivate hazardous functions within its application and has failed to adequately inform parents of potential risks associated with its platform.
The document reveals that the girl started using Snapchat in 2021 when she was 11 years old, unbeknownst to her parents.
Although Snapchat mandates users be at least 13, the lawsuit highlights that the girl doesn’t recall the birth date she used and indicates that children were aware they could easily sidestep the age restriction.
Roughly a year into her use of Snapchat, the suit alleges that the app suggested her, along with teenage girls from local high schools, as friend options to defendant Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios, an adult with whom they had no prior personal connection.
It did not warn the children that connecting to strangers might be dangerous.
After the girl and Valentin-Rios connected, Valentin-Rios began sending her unsolicited nude photographs, the lawsuit says.
The girl “did not want these photographs and, at first, did not reciprocate but Snapchat’s product design made it impossible for (her) to avoid such explicit content,” it says.
As part of its Snap Maps feature, the app also provided Valentin-Rios with the girl’s home address without her knowledge, according to the lawsuit.
Valentin-Rios then groomed the girl, convincing her that he was a 17-year-old local high school boy, not a 25-year-old man.
Eventually he got her to meet him in person and raped her.
Valentin-Rios pleaded guilty to statutory rape and is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence in Missouri.
The lawsuit claims Snapchat knew that Valentin-Rios had multiple accounts — even though it is against the app’s policies — including one he used to lure teen girls.
“We care deeply about the safety and well-being of all Snapchatters, and our teams have worked for years to build safeguards, launch safety tutorials, partner with experts, and work with law enforcement to help prevent the misuse of our platform,” Snap said in a statement.
The girl has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages and are asking the court to compel Snap to stop practices that harm children.
“This assault did not happen in a vacuum — it happened because Snapchat’s product design made it easy for a predator to reach and manipulate an unsuspecting child,” said Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which brought the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs. “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.”
This is not the first such lawsuit against Snap. New Mexico sued the company in 2024, saying the platform’s design features foster sextortion, sexual abuse and unwanted contact from adults to minors.
According to the lawsuit, Snap was well aware, but failed to warn parents, young users and the public that “sextortion was a rampant, ‘massive,’ and ‘incredibly concerning issue’ on Snapchat.” A judge denied the company’s motion to dismiss last year.
There are also individual lawsuits pending against the company, including one in Vermont on behalf of two 12-year-old girls who were sexually assaulted by an adult they met on Snapchat.