{"id":4392,"date":"2026-06-25T05:33:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampamovingjournal.com\/?p=4392"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:33:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:33:52","slug":"parents-sue-snap-after-12-year-old-daughter-was-raped-by-adult-man-she-met-on-snapchat-lawsuit-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampamovingjournal.com\/?p=4392","title":{"rendered":"Parents sue Snap after 12-year-old daughter was raped by adult man she met on Snapchat, lawsuit says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n article<\/span><\/div>

FILE – The Snapchat app displays on a mobile phone with Snap Inc. in the background. (Photo by Jonathan Raa\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>

Read more Suspected drug dealer arrested for murder after deadly overdose in Riverview<\/a><\/p> <\/div><\/div> <\/div>

The parents of a girl who was raped by an adult she met on Snapchat when she was 12 years old are suing the app\u2019s parent company and their daughter’s attacker.\u00a0<\/p>

Dig deeper:<\/p>

The lawsuit was filed in a Missouri state court on Wednesday and claimed the social media company refused to disable dangerous features in its app or warn parents about potential harms it could cause.\u00a0<\/p>

<\/div>

12-year-old met 25-year-old man on Snapchat<\/h2>

Timeline:<\/p>

The victim began using Snapchat in 2021 when she was 11 years old without her parents\u2019 knowledge, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>

The app usually requires users to be 13 in order to sign up, but the victim couldn\u2019t remember what birth date she used to bypass the minimum age requirements.\u00a0<\/p>

A year after signing up for Snapchat, the app allegedly recommended the victim, as well as other minors from nearby high schools, as friends to Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios, an adult who was also using the app at the time.\u00a0<\/p>

Valentin-Rios had no real-life connections with the victim.<\/p>

After becoming friends with the victim on Snapchat, Valentin-Rios began\u00a0 sending her unsolicited nude photographs, the lawsuit claimed.\u00a0<\/p>

Snap Maps feature revealed victim\u2019s location\u00a0<\/h2>

Snapchat has a feature called Snap Maps which allows people who are connected on the app to see their friends\u2019 real-time locations anywhere in the world.\u00a0<\/p>

Valentin-Rios used this feature to then locate the victim and then groomed her, the lawsuit stated.\u00a0<\/p>

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He convinced the victim that he was actually a 17-year-old boy and eventually convinced her to meet with him in person. Valentin-Rios then allegedly raped the victim during that meet-up.<\/p>

Valentin-Rios pleaded guilty to statutory rape and is currently serving an 18-year prison sentence in Missouri.<\/p>

Big picture view:<\/p>

The lawsuit claims Snapchat knew that Valentin-Rios had multiple accounts \u2014 even though it is against the app’s policies \u2014 including one he used to lure teen girls.<\/p>

The girl has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>

The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages and are asking the court to compel Snap to stop practices that harm children.<\/p>

Snapchat\u2019s past lawsuits<\/h2>

The backstory:<\/p>

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.\u00a0<\/p>

According to the lawsuit, Snap was well aware, but failed to warn parents, young users and the public that “sextortion was a rampant, \u2018massive,\u2019 and \u2018incredibly concerning issue\u2019 on Snapchat.” A judge denied the company’s motion to dismiss last year.<\/p>

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.<\/p>

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The parents of a girl who was raped when she was 12 years old by an adult stranger she met on Snapchat have sued its parent company and the attacker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,330],"tags":[8,331],"class_list":["post-4392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-social-media","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-social-media"],"yoast_head":"\nParents sue Snap after 12-year-old daughter was raped by adult man she met on Snapchat, lawsuit says - Tampa moving journal<\/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:\/\/tampamovingjournal.com\/?p=4392\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Parents sue Snap after 12-year-old daughter was raped by adult man she met on Snapchat, lawsuit says - 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