Parents sue Snap over alleged child grooming on Snapchat

The parents of a 12-year-old Missouri girl have filed a lawsuit against Snap Inc., alleging that design features on its Snapchat platform enabled an adult predator to contact, groom, and sexually assault their daughter. The 111-page complaint, filed on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in a Missouri state court, also names the attacker, Gabriel Joel Valentin-Rios, who pleaded guilty to statutory assault and enticement of a child and is serving an 18-year prison sentence.

According to the lawsuit, the girl, referred to as J.F., began using Snapchat in 2021 when she was 11 years old without her parents' knowledge, despite the platform's requirement that users be at least 13. The complaint alleges that Snapchat's "Quick Add" feature, which recommends connections, suggested J.F. and other teenage girls from nearby schools to Valentin-Rios, a 25-year-old man with no prior connection to them. The lawsuit states he used a cartoon Bitmoji avatar to present himself as a 17-year-old high school student.

The legal filing further claims that after connecting, Valentin-Rios sent unsolicited explicit photographs and that Snapchat's design made it impossible for the girl to avoid such content. It also...