Oregon Mom Sues Snapchat After Cyberbullied Son Takes Own Life

An Oregon mom sued the Snapchat app after her 16-year-old son committed suicide following months of being bullied online.

The mother is also suing Yolo and LMK, which were anonymous messaging apps built for Snapchat. Los Angeles Times reported that the lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California on Monday.

Oregon Mom Sues Snapchat

Hollywood Unlocked noted that the complaint of Kristin Bride alleged that the companies violated the consumer protection law by failing to meet their terms of service and policies.

The complaint further noted that the apps facilitate bullying. Thus, these social media apps should be considered dangerous products.

The lawsuit also aims to make Yolo and LMK banned in Snapchat and other platforms that failed to safeguard users from cyberbullying. The suit also seeks financial damages in excess of $5 million for the alleged harms and misrepresentations.

The New York-based anti-bullying nonprofit Tyler Clementi Foundation is the co-plaintiff of Kristin Bride. The foundation was formed by the family of Tyler Clementi, another suicide victim, in 2010. He committed suicide due to cyber harassment when he was attending Rutger's University.

"The high school students who anonymously cyberbullied Carson will live with this for the rest of their lives," said Kristin Bride in a statement.

The Oregon mom further noted that the executives of Snapchat, Yolo, and LMK should be held accountable for "putting profits over the mental health of young people."

The lawsuit filed by Kristin Bride came a week after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals opened the idea of social media companies being held accountable for building features that are dangerous to individuals.

The said case in the previous week also focused on a Snapchat filter that detects how fast the user was moving and allows them to add that number to a post on the platform.

The filter allegedly victimized a 17-year-old passenger who pulled up Snap moments before their car hit a speed of 123 mph and crashed into a tree in Wisconsin.

Snapchat User Commits Suicide

Kristin Bride's son, or the teen who committed suicide, was identified as Carson Bride. Bride committed suicide after receiving anonymous messages on Snapchat's YOLO app for months, Complex reported. The 16-year-old was discovered dead by his family on June 23, 2020.

The discovery of Carson Bride's death also revealed that the teen searched online how to disclose the usernames' in the app. Comments found in the anonymous plugin in Snapchat included sexual comments and mentioning specific incidents involving the victim, like when Carson Bride fainted in his Biology class in his Oregon school.

Los Angeles Times reported that the messages came from the people that Carson Bride knew. However, the design of the plugin for Snapchat made it impossible for him to find out who was behind the messages.

Once the victim replies to the messages, the app will make the messages public to reveal things that might embarrass the victim.

Los Angeles Times noted that after the Oregon mom discovered the messages on Snapchat's plugin YOLO, she contacted the company through its website, but nobody responded.

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