this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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A judge has dismissed a complaint from a parent and guardian of a girl, now 15, who was sexually assaulted when she was 12 years old after Snapchat recommended that she connect with convicted sex offenders.

According to the court filing, the abuse that the girl, C.O., experienced on Snapchat happened soon after she signed up for the app in 2019. Through its "Quick Add" feature, Snapchat "directed her" to connect with "a registered sex offender using the profile name JASONMORGAN5660." After a little more than a week on the app, C.O. was bombarded with inappropriate images and subjected to sextortion and threats before the adult user pressured her to meet up, then raped her. Cops arrested the adult user the next day, resulting in his incarceration, but his Snapchat account remained active for three years despite reports of harassment, the complaint alleged.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (6 children)

Parents seriously need to be more aware of what kids are doing on their phones. Why the hell is a 12 year old on snapchat to begin with?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt snapchat requires photo ID in order to make an account. Besides requiring ID, it's not clear to me how else snapchat would be able to know that she is a minor and that the perpetrator is a sex offender.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

putting this all on the parents is a failure to understand how parenting works. parents who are the most attentive still aren't around their kids all the time and children will always find a way to do something. why was snapchat connecting adults to children through algorithms in the first place?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Something tells me you didn't read my comment.

Unless we want snapchat and other apps to require photo ID, how would snapchat actually know who is a child and who is an adult? Why did the parents not know or care that the kid had snapchat downloaded?

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