The suit seeks unspecified damages from Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Snap Inc, parent company of Snapchat, as well as the two convicted rapists, one a former New Haven police officer. — Unsplash
BRIDGEPORT: A Stratford couple, whose 15-year-old daughter was raped by two separate convicted sex offenders that allegedly contacted her through social media sites, is suing the parent companies of Instagram and Snapchat.
“This lawsuit seeks to hold the social media defendants’ products responsible for causing and contributing to the burgeoning mental health crisis perpetuated upon children and teenagers of the United States,” states the 95-page lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Bridgeport.
The suit seeks unspecified damages from Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Snap Inc, parent company of Snapchat, as well as the two convicted rapists, one a former New Haven police officer.
“We feel this is a very significant case given everything that our client has gone through,” said attorney Michael Kennedy of New Haven, who is representing the family along with lawyers from the Social Media Victims Law Center of Seattle, Washington.
The law center, established in 2021 by attorney Matthew Bergman, has filed numerous lawsuits against social media platforms on behalf of parents, including those who have claimed their children have gotten involved with drugs or attempted suicide in connection with their use of these platforms.
Bergman said this is the first lawsuit they have filed against Meta and Snap claiming the platforms are responsible for sexual abuse.
Officials from Meta did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
“While we can't comment on active litigation, the privacy and safety of our Snapchat community is of paramount importance,” said Snap spokesman Pete Boogaard. “Exploitation of any kind is unacceptable on our platform – and we routinely work with safety experts and law enforcement to help combat it. Snapchat is a visual messaging app designed for communication between real friends, and we intentionally make it very difficult for strangers to find and communicate with minors.”
The lawsuit states when the victim, whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy, was only 10 years old, she was coerced by an unknown “Instagram predator” into sending explicit photos of herself. When he wouldn’t stop demanding photos, the girl attempted suicide “in the hopes of finding some escape”, the lawsuit alleges.
When her family discovered the truth behind her suicide attempt they reported “the exploitation to police, who informed them that Meta’s Instagram product was designed in such a way that they could not identify who was behind the Instagram account that was used to abuse her, and a case was never opened”, the lawsuit states.
In July 2019, the girl was contacted by a man on Snapchat, according to the lawsuit. The man later turned out to be convicted sex offender Reginald Sharp.
The suit alleges Sharp, even though he knew the girl was only 13 at the time, convinced her to send him nude photographs of herself. But once she did so he threatened to post those photos on social media unless she agreed to meet him, the suit states.
One night that July, the girl snuck out of her home and met Sharp, the lawsuit states. Police later said Sharp led her to a grassy area where he had spread a blanket and then repeatedly raped her.
Police then showed the girl a photo lineup and she picked out Sharp’s photograph.
In December 2019, Sharp pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a child, enticing a minor and violation of parole and was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 20 years of special parole.
“It was a parent’s worst nightmare; a repeat sex offender raped my baby girl. It killed my soul that I couldn’t protect her from this monster. For some time, she wouldn’t dress as a girl because she was worried someone would attack her because she looked pretty,” the girl’s mother told the sentencing judge.
Bergman said Sharp still has an active Snapchat account.
“That’s shocking to us,” he said.
The lawsuit also alleges that in October 2021, the girl, then 14, met another man on Snapchat – a former New Haven police officer – who also sexually assaulted her.
According to police reports, the girl’s mother reported to a resource officer at Stratford High School that her daughter had been sexually assaulted by an older man. Police said the mother told them she had been going through her daughter’s cellphone when she saw a number of sexually explicit texts from a person who identified himself as “Jonathan Eddy”.
Police said Jonathan Eddy was subsequently identified as Edward “Eddie” Rodriguez, a former New Haven police officer who was on probation for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in West Haven.
Police said the victim told them she had initially contacted Rodriguez on Snapchat and, while she didn’t know how old he was, she agreed to meet him before school. The victim met Rodriguez in a parking lot near the Stratford Library and agreed to get into his car, police said.
Once in the car, police said Rodriguez sexually assaulted the victim. He then drove her to school.
Police said the victim subsequently identified Rodriguez as the man who assaulted her from a police photo array.
Rodriguez has pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault, illegal sexual contact and violating his prior probation and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
The lawsuit claims Meta and Snap specifically target children and teenagers with their programming and allows them to be exploited.
“For years Snap has received reports of child abuse and bullying occurring through its product and because of its product features yet has kept those features in place,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit describes the victim as once being a “happy and outgoing child who always enjoyed school and spending time with her family and friends”.
The lawsuit states that the girl’s parents attempted to cut her off from using social media numerous times but she was able to open new accounts they were not aware of and accessed these accounts on other media.
“(The victim) has been hospitalised and in counselling because of the harms Meta and Snap caused her,” the lawsuit states. “She has isolated herself socially; she has suffered from anxiety and depression, thoughts of self harm and suicide; and tremendous pain and guilt for what her dependency on their products and her inability to just stop using them has caused her family.” – Connecticut Post, Bridgeport/Tribune News Service
