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Wide-Ranging Legal Claims

The lawsuits assert claims including product liability for design defects, failure to warn, negligence, fraudulent concealment or misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unjust enrichment, invasion of privacy and wrongful death.

The parents seek unspecified damages, along with litigation costs and attorney fees.

“A Hunting Ground for Predators”

“Meta’s secret is out,” said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, in a statement Wednesday. “For years, Meta knew Instagram was a hunting ground for predators, yet chose to protect engagement metrics over children’s lives.”

He said the decision to connect strangers with children has turned Instagram into “the epicenter of sextortion-related youth suicides,” adding that internal safety recommendations could have saved lives.

Meta Responds

In a statement Wednesday, a Meta spokesperson called sextortion a “horrific crime” and said the company supports law enforcement efforts to prosecute offenders.

The spokesperson said that since 2021, Instagram has placed teens under 16 into private accounts by default, requiring approval for new followers. Meta also said it works to block suspicious accounts from following teens, blurs potentially sensitive images in direct messages, warns users about sharing such content and notifies people when they may be chatting with someone in another country.

Legal Teams

The parents are represented by Joseph J. Rhoades and Stephen T. Morrow of Rhoades & Morrow LLC, along with Matthew P. Bergman and Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center PLLC.

Counsel information for Meta and Instagram was not immediately available.

As the cases move forward, the lawsuits cast Instagram not as a neutral platform but, the parents argue, as an engine that quietly fueled tragedy by design.