A mother from Enfield, Connecticut, sued Meta and Snapchat in federal court after her 11-year old daughter killed herself last year. The child developed an extreme addiction to Snapchat and Instagram.
Mother Sues Social Media Companies
The girl's mother, Tammy Rodriguez, filed the lawsuit against the two companies in a federal court in San Francisco on Jan. 21.
Rodriguez claims that her daughter, Selena Rodriguez, became addicted to the two social media apps. She tried to limit her daughter's access to the said apps, but her daughter ran away from home when she did so.
Rodriguez took her daughter to a therapist, who told her that she had never seen a patient as addicted to social media as Selena. The news about the lawsuit was first reported by Bloomberg.
Rodriguez is being represented in the case by the Social Media Victims Law Center, a law firm based in Seattle, Washington.
The firm says it works to hold social media companies legally accountable for their harm to users, especially the vulnerable ones like underage children.
Massive tech companies, including Instagram's parent company Meta and Snapchat, have recently come under fire over claims that they failed to stem their platforms' dangerous effect on children.
The shares of both Snap and Meta were down in morning trading on Wall Street. A spokesperson for Snap told The New York Post that they are devastated to hear of Selena's passing, but they can't comment on the specifics of active litigation.
The spokesperson added that they work closely with several mental health organizations to give in-app tools and resources for Snapchatters as part of their ongoing work to keep their community safe.
In November, Meta responded to allegations that it disregarded its own engineers' warnings over the dangers of its products and their effects on youngsters by saying that they continue to build new features to help users who might be dealing with body image issues or negative social comparisons.
In 2017, a 14-year-old girl from England, Molly Russell, committed suicide after going on Instagram and being pushed into the app's rabbit hole with depressive content, according to the victim's parents.
In 2021, researchers at Brigham Young University found that severe usage of social media platforms placed teenagers at increased risk of suicide, especially girls.
Social Media's Role in Self-Harm
A parental social media watchdog app, Bark, reported a 25% increase in suicide alerts and self-harm among teenagers, mostly between the ages of 12 and 18.
According to Fox, the app alerts parents when it detects potential issues in their children's app activities and text messages.
The app analyzed more than 3.4 million messages across emails, social media platforms, and texts in 2021 as the pandemic forced millions of children across the United States to spend hours online every day.
Titania Jordan, the chief parent officer of Bark, said that they saw a great need for transparency around data, especially regarding children and harmful content.
Around 43% of young teenagers and almost 75% of teenagers were involved in situations or conversations involving self-harm or suicides.
A study shows that spending 3 hours a day on social media can already have a negative effect on your mental health.
Experts recommend that users need to have a social media break in order to improve their mental health.
Related Article: Big Tech And Declining Mental Health: Should They Be Held Liable?
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Written by Sophie Webster
