The victim was 12 years old when the extortionist began asking her for photos without clothes, telling her that she was pretty, that he was her friend.
She believed and thought that her photos would disappear as well as her videos just because she connected to Snapchat.
Now, at 16, she is leading a class action lawsuit against an App that has become one of the pillars of life for American teenagers, swearing that its designers have done almost nothing to prevent the sexual exploitation of girls like her.
Her case against Snapchat reveals a disturbing history of shame and abuse within a video-messaging app that has gone unnoticed by lawmakers for years.
Even when it has surpassed 300 million active users and having a reputation as a safe space for young people to exchange their most intimate images and thoughts.
But it also raises tough questions about privacy and security, arguing that the systems they rely on to root out sexually abusive images of children are fatally flawed.
“There isn’t a child in the world that doesn’t have this app,” the girl’s mother told The Washington Post, “and yet an adult can correspond with them, manipulate them, over the course of many years, and the company does nothing. How does that happen?
In the lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in California, the girl, who expresses anonymity as a victim of sexual abuse and is named only as LW, and her mother accuse Snapchat of negligently failing to design a platform that could protect its users of “appalling abuses”.
The stalker, saved his photos and videos from Snapchat and shared them with other people on the Web, found a criminal investigation.
He was an active duty Marine who was convicted last year on charges related to child pornography and sexual abuse in military court.
In a statement to The Post, Snapchat’s company said it employs “the latest technologies” and develops its own software “to help us find and remove content that exploits or abuses children.”
“While we can’t comment on active litigation, this is tragic and we’re glad the perpetrator has been caught and convicted,” Snap spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said. “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our community.”
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