A Teen Girl Sexually Exploited on Snapchat Takes on American Tech

May 5, 2022
Communication Services

By: The Washington Post

May 5, 2022

She was 12 when he started demanding nude photos, saying she was pretty, that he was her friend. She believed, because they had connected on Snapchat, that her photos and videos would disappear.

Now, at 16, she is leading a class-action lawsuit against an app that has become a mainstay of American teen life — claiming its designers have done almost nothing to prevent the sexual exploitation of girls like her.

Her case against Snapchat reveals a haunting story of shame and abuse inside a video-messaging app that has for years flown under lawmakers’ radar, even as it has surpassed 300 million active users and built a reputation as a safe space for young people to trade their most intimate images and thoughts.

But it also raises difficult questions about privacy and safety, and it throws a harsh spotlight on the tech industry’s biggest giants, arguing that the systems they depend on to root out sexually abusive images of children are fatally flawed.