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Parents of sextortion victim sue Meta, accusing the social media giant of putting profits and engagement ahead of children’s safety — with fatal consequences. Lawsuits unsealed Wednesday allege that Meta Platforms Inc. and its Instagram app knowingly connected child users with adult sexual predators, leading to the suicides of two boys, one in Scotland and one in the United States.

The cases, filed in California and Delaware courts, were brought by Rosalind and Mark Dowey, whose 16-year-old son from Scotland is identified as M.D., and Tricia Maciejewski, the parent of L.M., a 13-year-old boy from Pennsylvania. The parents say their children were “sextorted” after being targeted through Instagram’s recommendation tools.

Allegations of Longstanding Knowledge

According to the complaints, Meta knew as early as 2019 that Instagram was recommending children’s accounts to adult predators, yet failed to act. Newly unsealed filings contend that internal analyses warned executives the platform was facilitating dangerous connections but that the company chose growth over safety.

Central to the lawsuit is Instagram’s AI-driven “Accounts You May Follow” feature, designed to boost user engagement. The parents allege a 2019 Meta analysis estimated about 3.5 million profiles were seeking “inappropriate interactions with children.”

By 2023, Meta’s own estimates allegedly showed that nearly 2 million children’s accounts were recommended to adult predators in just three months, with 22% of those recommendations leading to follow requests.

Safety Fixes Rejected, Suit Claims

The parents argue Meta could have adopted straightforward safeguards — such as making teen accounts private by default or blocking direct messages from adult strangers — but instead rejected those options to protect engagement metrics.

Rather than leaning on engineers to implement safety-first changes, the complaint says, Meta turned to its growth team, which concluded that a private-by-default policy could cost the platform 1.5 million monthly active teen users per year.

A Pattern With Deadly Consequences

The lawsuits say both boys were approached by adults posing as young girls, persuaded to send sexually explicit images and then blackmailed with threats to distribute the material to friends and family.

Both M.D. and L.M. died by suicide after the alleged extortion, their parents say, linking the tragedy directly to Instagram’s recommendation system.

The complaints also accuse Meta of compounding the harm once sextortion began. Parents allege reporting systems were ineffective and that the company sometimes failed to remove reported child sexual abuse material for days.