Caledonia, Ont. man believed to have lured teen girl using Snapchat: Sarnia police

Sarnia police have charged a Caledonia man after he allegedly used Snapchat to communicate with a teen girl. CTV’s Lauren Stallone reports.

From different filters, to streaks, to a feature that even lets you know what your friends are up to, Snapchat is a go to source of communication for many.

For one 14-year-old girl from Sarnia, Ont., it turned into something far more serious when she began talking to a man on the app who told her he was 20 years old.

“That communication evolved into requests for nude images and the male involved started sending pictures and videos of himself doing various things with himself,” said Ron Hansen with Sarnia Police.

Police said the man started sending Uber Eats orders to the girl’s school. It is believed he learned of her location through the Maps function on Snapchat.

“Eventually the individual was able to find out where she lived,” Hansen said.

Investigators said he provided the young girl with an iPhone so they could continue to communicate without her parents finding out.

“There was an interaction there while no one was home and the individual touched the girl in a sexual manner,” Hansen added.

The girl’s parents caught wind of the situation and reported the incident to police. The 29-year-old suspect of Caledonia was arrested on Oct. 18 and charged with several offences including sexual assault and child luring.

Police say the accused went by the username B_RISHU01 and barrit999 on Snapchat.

Experts warn social media is a risky place, but when you opt in to share your location with fellow users, it raises the stakes to a terrifying new level.

“Most Snapchat users are in fact teens, and they are particularly vulnerable to predatory behaviour from adults. So, mix that with a location-aware service that allows anyone on their friends list to know exactly where they are, and you can definitely see the potential for disaster and crime,” said tech analyst Carmi Levy.

Levy said parents should become familiar with the kinds of things their kids may run into while using various social media apps.

“It’s really about having that mutual, bidirectional trust so that you can talk about what’s going on in your kids’ account, who they’re messaging, and you can catch these things before they become problematic,” Levy said.