Snapchat seeks to scuttle lawsuit filed by parents of local boy – Penticton Herald

The lawyer for the parents of a Prince George boy who died of suicide after a 2023 sextortion said July 28 that the California company behind Snapchat is trying to escape accountability for failing to protect children from sexual predators. In BC Supreme Court in Prince George, Claire Hunter opposed the application by lawyers for Snap Inc. to dismiss Nicola Smith and Ryan Cleland’s lawsuit against the social media company. Smith and Cleland’s 12-year-old son, Carson, took his own life on Oct. 12, 2023 after falling prey to online sexual extortion. Last October’s notice of civil claim seeks damages for negligence, failure to warn and negligent or fraudulent misrepresentation. But Hunter said Snap, which reported US$5.9 billion revenue last year, wants to strike the claim and dismiss the action rather than file a statement of defence. “(Snap) has attempted to cut it off at the knees, at this early stage of the proceeding, by filing this motion, by declining to plead or to make discovery of what it knows about the circumstances leading to Carson’s death,” Hunter told Justice Ronald Tindale. “Instead, pursuing this application, Snap seeks to deny these grieving parents access to the truth-seeking function of the trial
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