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New Mexico\u2019s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the company behind Snapchat<\/a>, alleging that site\u2019s design and policies foster the sharing of child sexual abuse material and facilitate\u00a0child sexual exploitation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Attorney General Ra\u00fal Torrez filed the lawsuit against Snap Inc. Thursday in state court in Santa Fe. In addition to sexual abuse, the lawsuit claims the company also openly promotes child trafficking, drugs and guns.<\/p>\n Last December, Torrez filed a\u00a0similar lawsuit against Meta<\/a>, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook<\/a>, saying it allows predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex on its platforms. That suit is pending.<\/p>\n Snap\u2019s \u201charmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,\u201d Torrez said in a statement. Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favors.<\/p>\n \u201cSnap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold, and stored indefinitely,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n In a statement, Snap said it shares Torrez\u2019s and the public\u2019s concerns about the online safety of young people.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand that online threats continue to evolve and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues,\u201d the company based in Santa Monica, California, said. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years, and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the complaint, minors report having more online sexual interactions on Snapchat than any other platform, and more sex trafficking victims are recruited on Snapchat than on any other platform.<\/p>\n Prior to the lawsuit, New Mexico conducted a monthslong undercover investigation into child sexual abuse images on Snapchat. According to Torrez\u2019s statement, the investigation revealed a \u201cvast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap,\u201d finding more than 10,000 records related to Snap and child sexual abuse material in the last year. This included information related to minors younger than 13 being sexually assaulted.<\/p>\n As part of the undercover investigation, the New Mexico department of justice set up a decoy Snapchat account for a 14-year-old named Heather, who found and exchanged messages with accounts with names like \u201cchild.rape\u201d and \u201cpedo_lover10.\u201d<\/p>\n Snapchat, the lawsuit alleges, \u201cwas by far the largest source of images and videos among the dark web sites investigated.\u201d Investigators also found Snapchat accounts that openly circulated and sold child abuse images directly on the platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nRecommended reading:<\/strong>
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