Snapchat accused by New Mexico of facilitating child sexual exploitation

A lawsuit filed Thursday by New Mexico against Snap, the company that operates the popular social media app, alleges design features of Snapchat have made it a favorite platform for sex offenders who target children.

An undercover investigation by the state has revealed that Snapchat “created an environment where child molesters can easily target children through sextortion and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raul Torrez said in a news release.

Sextortion is a fast-growing crime in which someone poses as a peer and coerces minors into sending explicit images or videos of themselves, then threatens to distribute the material unless they are paid. The scam has led to numerous teen suicides, the AG noted.

“Snap has tricked users into believing that photos and videos posted to its platform will disappear. However, scammers have been able to permanently capture this content, creating a virtual yearbook of child pornography images that are traded, sold and stored indefinitely,” Torrez said.

The New Mexico Department of Justice discovered a massive network of dark web sites sharing stolen, nonconsensual sexual images from Snap, with more than 10,000 records tied to Snap and child abuse material in the past year alone, it said. That includes information related to minors under the age of 13 who were sexually abused, the agency said.

Detectives created a fake Snapchat account for a 14-year-old girl named Heather. The account was used to exchange messages with malicious accounts, including accounts named “child.rape” and “pedo_lover10,” the state said.

Last October, Alegandro Marquez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in prison for raping an 11-year-old girl he met through Snapchat, according to the lawsuit and government officials.

Snap said it is investigating the complaint and will respond through the courts.

“We’ve been working hard to find, remove and report bad actors, educate our community, and give teens, as well as parents and caregivers, tools to help them stay safe online,” a Snap spokesperson said. The company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to improve safety, the spokesperson said.

According to the lawsuit, more than 20 million American teenagers use Snapchat, and half of all teens in the country use the app every day.

New Mexico filed an application in December a similar suit in return for Meta platforms and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.