Section 230 Precludes Child Sex Trafficking Claims vs. Grindr, Judge Finds

U.S. District Judge Otis Wright for Central California in Los Angeles granted Grindr's motion to dismiss with prejudice and without leave to amend plaintiff John Doe’s child sex trafficking complaint against the operator of the dating app for LGBTQ+ people, said the judge's signed Dec. 28 order (docket 2:23-cv-02093). “The facts of this case are indisputably alarming and tragic,” it said. “No one should endure” what plaintiff Doe has. But “after careful review and consideration of the facts and applicable law,” the court "ultimately determines" that Doe’s claims are "precluded" by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it said. In spring 2019, Doe was 15 and lived in a small town in Nova Scotia, where he “knew he was gay but was too ashamed to tell his parents,” said the order. “Seeking queer community,” Doe installed the Grindr app, misrepresented that he was older than 18 and created a user profile, it said. Grindr didn’t verify Doe’s age, it said. Over a four-day period, the app matched Doe with four “geographically proximate adult men,” it said. Doe and the men exchanged direct messages, personal information and sexually explicit photos, it added. Doe met each man and was sexually assaulted and raped, it said. After Doe’s mother confronted him, Doe told her he was on Grindr, that the app matched him with adult men and that they had raped him, it said. Three of the men are in prison for sex crimes, while the fourth remains at large, it said.