{"id":2430,"date":"2026-06-26T11:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2026-06-26T11:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T11:07:13","slug":"parents-sue-snapchat-alleging-its-responsibility-for-12-year-olds-rape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=2430","title":{"rendered":"Parents Sue Snapchat Alleging Its Responsibility For 12-Year-Old\u2019s Rape"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Parents of a Missouri teenager sued Snapchat\u2019s parent company, Snap, Wednesday alleging the platform bears some responsibility for their 12-year-old daughter\u2019s rape.<\/p>\n

Read more Tennis Legend Chris Evert Reveals Third Cancer Diagnosis<\/a><\/p>\n

Social Media Victims Law Center filed the lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs alleging that the social media company has refused to disable dangerous features or warn parents of the harm they could cause, according to CBS.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis assault did not happen in a vacuum- it happened because Snapchat\u2019s product design made it easy for a predator to reach out and manipulate an unsuspecting child,\u201d Matthew Bergman, founder of Social Media Victims Law Center said, according to the outlet. \u201cSnap 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>\n

Snapchat did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

The minor victim, referred to by the initials J.F. in the lawsuit, began using Snapchat in 2021 when she was 11 years old. The app requires users to be at least 13, however, the girl could not remember the date she used to bypass the age requirement, according to Fox5.<\/p>\n

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A year later, Snapchat allegedly began recommending defendant Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios to the victim and her friends \u2014 even though they did not have any connections with him in real life. After becoming friends on the app, Valentin-Rios began sending unsolicited nudes to the victim, the lawsuit stated, according to CBS.<\/p>\n

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\n\"(Photo\n<\/div>\n

Family and friends hold a banner reading \u201cSnapchat: Protect Kids, Not Predators\u201d during a demonstration organized by the Heat Initiative outside Snap Inc.\u2019s Snapchat headquarters in Santa Monica, California, on February 12, 2026, amid a landmark social media addiction trial. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cJ.F. did not want these photographs and, at first, did not reciprocate but Snapchat\u2019s design product made it impossible for J.F. to avoid such explicit content,\u201d the lawsuit says, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n

J.F. has since been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and PTSD, the lawsuit states, CBS reported.<\/p>\n

Read more America Magazine Has Lost It Again. This Time It\u2019s The Strangest Target.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Valentin-Rios convinced the victim he was a local 17-year-old high school student, while actually being 25, and used snap maps to locate the address of the victim without her knowledge, according the outlet. After Valentin-Rios coaxed J.F. into meeting him in person, he raped her.<\/p>\n

Snap maps is a feature on snapchat that allows people who are friends on the app to see the real-time location of each other, Fox 5 reported.<\/p>\n

Valentin-Rios pled guilty to statuary rape and is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence in Missouri, CBS reported. (RELATED: Florida Sues Big Tech Giant Claiming It Willingly Hawked Harmful Product)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims that the defendant had multiple accounts, one of which he used to lure teen girls, according to Fox 5. The Plaintiffs are seeking unspecified damages and a call for Snap to stop practices that are harming children.<\/p>\n

Snapchat was sued by New Mexico in 2024 for alleging that the company had features that allow sextortion, sexual abuse, and unwanted contact between adults and minors, CBS reported.<\/p>\n

Democratic New Mexico Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez\u00a0said in a 2024 press release\u00a0that his office\u2019s \u201cundercover investigation revealed that Snapchat\u2019s harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several individual lawsuits are also pending against the company, one of which involves sexual assault, according to CBS.<\/p>\n

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter\u2019s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact\u00a0licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.<\/p>\n

Read more Ketanji Brown Jackson Really Worried Judges Might Actually Apply Second Amendment In Gun Cases<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Parents of a Missouri teenager sued Snapchat's parent company, Snap, Wednesday alleging the platform is responsible for their 12-year-old daughter's rape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[273,2664,108],"class_list":["post-2430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-lawsuit","tag-snapchat","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nParents Sue Snapchat Alleging Its Responsibility For 12-Year-Old\u2019s Rape - Home Transfer Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hometransferguide.com\/?p=2430\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parents Sue Snapchat Alleging Its Responsibility For 12-Year-Old\u2019s Rape - 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