the unnamed minor was only 10 years old when she was contacted by a first predator on Instagram and coerced into sending explicit photos of herself. He kept demanding more, leading to the child attempting suicide “in the hopes of finding some escape,”
When the family found out what was going on 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,”
In 2019, when she was 13, the child was contacted on Snapchat by a second convicted sex offender — Reginald Sharp — who knew her real age. He convinced her to send nude photos and blackmailed her, saying that he would post them online unless she met him in person.
The girl snuck out and met him and was repeatedly raped.
In October 2021, the girl was still allowed on social media apps, and the situation repeated itself with another registered sex offender, Edward “Eddie” Rodriguez, a former New Haven police officer. He was on probation for assaulting another teenage girl.
The girl met with Rodriguez and he sexually assaulted her in his car before driving her to school.
This is obviously a tragedy. But… the parents. Where were they when their daughter was meeting sexual predators online? What were they thinking allowing her to have a device with which she could make contact with such people. And then allowing it a second time?!
I don’t doubt there could be changes in the apps that could protect their daughter. But the real tragedy here is parenting. They failed to protect her. Tbh there is more basis to have protective services investigate her parents than for them to sue these apps.