The Skip the Games lawsuit refers to a group of civil cases filed in federal courts in Texas, Florida, and Georgia by survivors of sex trafficking who allege the adult classified platform knowingly profited from their exploitation.1Lawfold. SkipTheGames Lawsuit As of mid-2026, the cases are in discovery. No trial dates have been set, no damages have been awarded, no class action has been certified, and the platform continues to operate.
What the Lawsuits Allege
Plaintiffs are individual trafficking survivors, not a certified class. They allege that SkipTheGames accepted payment for ads tied to their exploitation, ignored internal red flags including reports of underage users and law enforcement subpoenas, and ran a business model that let traffickers post quickly and reach buyers with little friction.1Lawfold. SkipTheGames Lawsuit
The core claim is brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, specifically 18 U.S.C. § 1595, which gives trafficking victims a private right of action against those who knowingly benefit from a trafficking venture. Some plaintiffs have added civil RICO and state negligence claims. The TVPA theory is central because of a 2018 federal law called FOSTA-SESTA, which stripped online platforms of the Section 230 immunity that had historically shielded them from liability for user-posted content when the claim involves sex trafficking.1Lawfold. SkipTheGames Lawsuit
In discovery, plaintiffs are seeking the platform’s internal moderation policies, revenue data, and communications about reports of underage users. Those documents matter because of what the law now requires them to prove.
Why These Cases Are Hard to Win
FOSTA-SESTA opened the courthouse door, but a 2022 federal appellate ruling made clear how narrow the opening is. In Jane Does 1-6 v. Reddit, Inc., the Ninth Circuit held that to defeat Section 230 immunity, a plaintiff must show the platform itself — not just its users — violated the federal criminal sex trafficking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1591. Allegations that a website “turned a blind eye” to trafficking or earned money from platform-wide advertising are not enough. The platform has to have acted with actual knowledge and affirmatively assisted, supported, or facilitated a specific trafficking venture.2Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jane Does 1-6 v. Reddit, Inc.
The court acknowledged this is a high bar, calling it possibly a “flaw, or perhaps a feature” of the statute, but said it could not rewrite congressional intent.2Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Jane Does 1-6 v. Reddit, Inc. That ruling resolved a split in lower courts: some had allowed cases to go forward under a looser “should have known” standard, and the Ninth Circuit chose the stricter reading.3Harvard Journal of Law and Technology. Does v. Reddit: Ninth Circuit’s Narrow Reading of the Sex Trafficking Exception
The track record under the statute reflects that difficulty. A 2021 Government Accountability Office report found no civil damages had been awarded under FOSTA, and the picture has not meaningfully changed since. Only one federal criminal prosecution was brought under the law between its 2018 passage and August 2021.4Fight for the Future. FOSTA-SESTA Impact Report The SkipTheGames cases are being filed in Texas, Florida, and Georgia rather than the Ninth Circuit, so whether those courts adopt the same strict reading remains an open question.
How the Backpage Case Compares
Plaintiffs are leaning heavily on the Backpage.com precedent. Backpage was the dominant online marketplace for prostitution advertising until federal authorities seized it in April 2018. Its CEO pleaded guilty almost immediately, and in November 2023 a federal jury in Phoenix convicted three former Backpage principals on counts of promoting prostitution and money laundering. Evidence at trial showed the site had earned over $500 million during the conspiracy and used automated and human filters to sanitize ads while still permitting sex-for-money transactions.5U.S. Department of Justice. Backpage Principals Convicted in $500M Prostitution Promotion Scheme
The parallels are useful to plaintiffs. The differences cut the other way. Backpage was a federal criminal prosecution with a Senate investigation, asset seizures, a cooperating CEO, and years of accumulated evidence behind it. The SkipTheGames cases are civil, carry no cooperating insider, and face the evidentiary burden set by Reddit. Whether discovery will produce the kind of active-participation evidence the law now requires is the central unknown in the litigation.
Who Can Still File a Claim
Survivors who believe they were trafficked through SkipTheGames can still pursue claims under the TVPA. The statute allows a 10-year window from the date of the trafficking, or until age 28 for someone who was a minor at the time. Cases are being handled by civil trafficking attorneys, typically on a contingency basis, meaning no fees unless there is a recovery.6Lawfold. Skip the Games Lawsuit
There is no settlement to join and no class action to opt into. Each case is proceeding individually, with some mass tort consolidation.1Lawfold. SkipTheGames Lawsuit A survivor who wants to be part of the litigation needs to retain counsel and file a separate suit.
A Note on Criminal Arrests of Users
The civil lawsuits against the platform are distinct from the criminal arrests of users that the site has generated. Police departments across the country run undercover sting operations on SkipTheGames, posting ads or responding to them and arresting people who show up to meet. Those are state criminal prosecutions of individual buyers and sellers; they are not part of, and do not affect, the federal civil cases against SkipTheGames itself. Someone arrested in a sting is a criminal defendant, not a plaintiff in the Skip the Games lawsuit.
What to Watch Next
The near-term question is what discovery turns up. If internal SkipTheGames documents show management had actual knowledge of specific trafficking and continued to profit from it, plaintiffs may clear the Reddit bar even in a strict reading. If the documents show a hands-off operator, the cases will likely struggle at summary judgment the way earlier FOSTA cases have. Either way, no verdict has been rendered and no money has changed hands. The litigation is best understood as a test of whether FOSTA-SESTA can deliver what it promised to trafficking survivors against a platform that, unlike Backpage, has not been criminally charged.