The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), a legal resource for parents of children and teenage victims harmed by social media addiction and social media fueled harms, has filed a lawsuit on World Mental Health Day on behalf of 11 families in the United States and Canada whose children, ages 12 to 19, suffered physical and mental harms that could be directly attributed to their use of social media products.
The lawsuit seeks to hold Meta, Inc., ByteDance Ltd., Google, LLC, YouTube, LLC, and Discord, Inc., legally accountable for purposefully designing and marketing a defective product that provides consumers with no means to report or protect themselves, while targeting children with addictive features and unwanted “friend” recommendations, resulting in sextortion, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, substance use disorders, radicalization, and more.
Included in the Complaint is never before seen evidence of Meta failing and refusing to act on repeated reports of sextortion.
“There can be no doubt that social media companies are preying on our children with a product that is designed to ‘hook’ them to their products like an addictive drug,” said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of SMVLC. “We’ve started to see a societal shift as parents, researchers, and governments are mobilizing to address the danger these companies pose to children around the world. This isn’t just a problem in the U.S., it’s an unprecedented mental health crisis on a global scale.”
“This lawsuit is based on a growing body of scientific research, including these companies’ own internal studies which draw direct lines between their conscious, intentional design choices and the mental health crisis affecting children around the world.”
The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County at 12:01 a.m. and marks the 338th case SMVLC has filed against social media companies as part of California’s Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings (JCCP). To date, there are 745 lawsuits included in the JCCP which is seeking to hold social media companies legally accountable for knowingly concealing the harm they cause children and teens.
SMVLC filed the lawsuits on behalf of the families of Amanda Todd, 15, of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada; Braden Markus, 15, of Lewis Center, OH; Harry Burke, 17, of Prince Edward Island, Canada; “G.B.”, currently 12, of Tishomingo County, MS; “J.S.”, currently 13, of Cook County, IL; “N.G.”, currently 14, of Richmond County, NY; “S.E.” and “P.E.”, both currently 15, of Douglas County, NE; “V.H.”, currently 17, of Charleston County, SC; Tyler Richardson, 19, of Troy, IL; and Owen Zimmer, 17, of Warwick and East Greenwich, RI.
In what is believed to be one of the first reported sextortion deaths in North America, Amanda posted a video to YouTube detailing her experience being a victim of sextortion. She shared the following message one month before she took her own life:
“I’m struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I’m not doing this for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong. I did things to myself to make pain go away, because I’d rather hurt myself then someone else. Haters are haters but please don’t hate, although im sure I’ll get them. I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyones future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here aren’t I ? (sic)”
Today (October 10, 2024) marks 12 years exactly from the date of Amanda’s death.
The stories of the victims in the lawsuit are available upon request.
About the Social Media Victims Law Center
The Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) was founded in 2021 to hold social media companies legally accountable for the harm they inflict on vulnerable users. SMVLC seeks to apply principles of product liability to force social media companies to elevate consumer safety to the forefront of their economic analysis and design safer platforms to protect users from foreseeable harm.
About Matthew P. Bergman
Matthew P. Bergman is an attorney, law professor, philanthropist and community activist who has recovered over $1 billion on behalf of his clients. He is the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center and Bergman Draper Oslund Udo law firm; a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School; and serves on the board of directors of nonprofit institutions in higher education, national security, civil rights, worker protection and the arts.
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