While dating apps, social media platforms, and online chatrooms promote personal connections in digital spaces, they also create environments where sexual predators can connect with children and abusers can target vulnerable individuals. When these platforms are used to facilitate sexual assault and abuse, the tech giants that designed them need to be held accountable. Our team brings years of experience representing survivors of sexual abuse to help you navigate your situation and path to justice.

Dating Apps

Online dating has become a booming industry in the past decade, with many different apps and platforms targeted to consumers. According to Pew Research Center, 53 percent of adults under the age of 30 have used dating apps. But with the number of users increasing, so do the risks. A new study found 14 percent of rapes committed by an acquaintance were a result of the individuals meeting on a dating app. As both the number of dating app users and assaults continue to grow, these platforms need to be held accountable for policy failures that allow predators to circumvent bans and repeatedly use these apps to connect with unwitting victims.

As one example, the dating app Hinge is facing backlash for allowing Dr. Stephen Matthews, a Denver-based cardiologist, to remain on its app after a victim first reported him to the app in 2020, claiming she was raped after their first date. Despite multiple assurances from Hinge that Matthews’ account had been permanently banned, over the next three years Matthews allegedly used Hinge to meet and sexually assault multiple additional victims. In April 2023, Matthews was charged with three counts of felony assault. The company allegedly failed to keep this violent perpetrator off its app, exposing the gaps in policy and enforcement of banned users on Hinge.

Social Media Platforms

Social media companies such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube design their apps in a manner that enables child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Without adequate identity verification requirements, minors well below the legal age of 13 can easily access these platforms and create public profiles allowing them to be contacted by other users. Meanwhile, predators rely on these platforms’ friend suggestion algorithms to identify vulnerable individuals and utilize direct messages to anonymously groom victims.

Child sexual exploitation on social media platforms is far more widespread than most people realize. For example:

• A report from the Thorn Organization found that 25% of children ages 9-17 on social media platforms reported having had an online sexual interaction with someone they thought was 18 or older.
• According to the 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report from the Human Trafficking Institute, since 2000, traffickers have “recruited 55% of sex trafficking victims online,” including many through social media platforms.

Online Chatrooms and Internet Messaging Apps

Online chatrooms and internet messaging apps such as Omegle and Discord are designed with no age verification, allowing anyone to access their platforms and be randomly paired with other users. Omegle, Discord, and many similar platfroms currently face allegations regarding matching minors with abusers. These platforms have no mechanism in place to prevent children from matching with adults, exposing underage users to predators and facilitating sexual exploitation.

In the case A.M. v. Omegle, a minor plaintiff filed a product liability lawsuit against Omegle, alleging that when she was 11 years old, Omegle paired her with an adult male in his late thirties who sexually abused her online. In 2022, Judge Michael W. Mosman of the District of Oregon rejected Omegle’s motion to dismiss, ruling that the platform was not immune from liability under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and allowing the plaintiff’s case to move forward.

Similarly, our firm currently represents a minor plaintiff, who alleges that when she was 13 years old an internet messaging platform connected her with an adult male pedophile, who used the service to stalk, manipulate, kidnap, and sexually abuse our client.  

Our expertise

With a wealth of experience in the field, the Simpson Tuegel Law Firm is ready to help survivors seeking to hold online platforms and applications accountable for facilitating sexual abuse. Our fierce advocacy for survivors, backed by a comprehensive understanding of predatory behaviors, underlines our unique expertise in pursuing claims related to technology-enabled sexual abuse.

We have represented sexual abuse and assault survivors in high-profile cases such as the Larry Nassar litigation against The U.S. Olympic Committee, Michigan State University, and USA Gymnastics, sexual assault survivors at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan, and clergy abuse survivors nationwide.

We are here for you

Coming forward after being sexually abused is very difficult, and it takes a lot of courage to take action and tell your story. There are paths toward justice for you in both the criminal and civil justice systems, and we will help you every step of the way.

If you are in need of representation or simply have questions about a potential path to justice, please reach out using the contact form below. We will approach your case with sensitivity and dedication to get you the answers and outcome you deserve.