Timothy Barnett, 13, Dies by Suicide April 6, 2023 After Snapchat Sextortion; Family Sues Snap Inc.
Incident Details
Summary
Timothy Barnett, 13, died by suicide on April 6, 2023, at his home in Sumter, South Carolina after being targeted in a sextortion scheme on Snapchat. Despite his mother Betsy Hauptman regularly conducting 'spot checks' on his phone, Timothy was groomed and blackmailed by a predator using Snapchat's disappearing messages feature to avoid detection. His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Snap Inc. in South Carolina federal court, arguing that Snapchat is 'defectively designed with features that make the platform unreasonably dangerous for minors,' including its core disappearing message functionality that allows predators to evade evidence collection. State Rep. Brandon Guffey, who lost his own son to sextortion, mentored Hauptman through the process.
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