Families are suing Meta over teenage suicides allegedly linked to Instagram sextortion schemes
FOX Business Correspondent Madison Alworth discusses the allegations against Meta accusing them of hiding evidence that their social media platforms were doing damage and ignoring opportunities to use safeguards on ‘The Evening Edit.’
This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Two families have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta for their sons’ suicides, arguing that the tech giant failed to add adequate safeguards to prevent sexual content targeting teenagers on Instagram.
Tricia Maciejewski, of Pennsylvania, and Rosalind and Mark Downey, of Scotland, filed the lawsuit Wednesday, saying their sons fell into the same rape scheme, where a stranger messaged the teenager on social media pretending to be romantic before asking for nude photos. The stranger then threatens to share the photos with friends and family unless the victim shares more photos or sends money.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, is facing at least four other sex-related lawsuits that say Instagram ignored complaints about the system for years.
The families in the recent lawsuit allege that their sons’ deaths were “the direct result of Meta’s design decisions and repeated refusal to use affordable, available, and identifiable safety features due to Meta’s prioritization of engagement over user safety.”
NEW META TO ALLOW PARENTS TO DISABLE AI CHATS AFTER BACKLASH OVER FLIRTY CHATBOTS
Two families filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta for the suicide of their sons. (Photos by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Maciejewski’s son, Levi, 13, died by suicide in 2024 and the Downeys’ son, Murray, 16, committed suicide in 2023. Both teenage boys became victims of sexual harassment schemes on Instagram.
The families say that Meta knew that its referral program was connecting children with potential victims and that the company failed to properly address the issue.
The plaintiffs cited a 2022 internal study that found Instagram’s “Accounts You May Follow” tool suggested 1.4 million accounts for young users in a single day that may have engaged in inappropriate interactions with children.
Meta security investigators recommended in 2019 that the company change all new accounts to private settings, but the company refused to do so the following year, according to the lawsuit.
In 2021, Meta announced new restrictions on direct messages between teens and adults who don’t follow it, but the lawsuit says the changes were flawed and only applied to youth accounts rather than representing a “true default setting.”
Levi Maciejewski, 13, and Murray Downey, 16, were victims of sextortion schemes and died by suicide. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
The families said Meta didn’t implement full “private by default” settings and other ways to protect youth accounts until late last year, after their children died.
“Meta’s secret is out. For years, Meta has known that Instagram is a hunting ground for predators, but chose to protect the metrics of engagement in children’s lives,” said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents families, in a statement.
“That specific decision to connect strangers with children has cost families their sons and daughters, making Instagram a hotbed of sex-related teen suicides,” he continued. “If they had chosen to follow their internal recommendations they would have saved many lives.”
The company on Wednesday did not directly address the claim in the lawsuit but insisted that it is working to stop sex offenders.
“Sexting is a very serious crime,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “We support law enforcement to prosecute the criminals who are after you, and we continue to fight them in our many operational programs.”
BIPARTISAN SENATORS DEMAND INSTAGRAM SHUT OFF ITS NEW MAP VERIFICATION, ADDRESSING CHILD SAFETY CONCERNS.
Meta said it is working to stop sextortion scammers. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
“We are working to prevent accounts that display suspicious behavior from following young people and avoid recommending young people to them,” the statement added. “We are also taking other precautions, such as dimming potentially sensitive images sent via DMs and reminding young people of the risks of sharing them, and notifying people if they are chatting with someone who may be in a different country.”
Meta has also insisted that it will offer private accounts to under-16s upon registration from 2021, despite the lawsuit arguing that the company did not do so automatically until last year.
Instagram has introduced some changes to young people in recent years aimed at curbing sex, but the lawsuit says the changes came too late and that Instagram should be held responsible for the two teenagers’ suicides.
