A Connecticut woman suing Meta and Snap claims the social networks caused and contributed to the addiction her 11-year-old daughter suffered before taking her own life last year.
Tammy Rodriguez blames Instagram and Snapchat for the death of her daughter, Selena, who died by suicide in July 2021 "after struggling with the harmful effects of social media," according to the lawsuit.
Citing "large observational studies and experimental results," the complaint suggests heavy use of social media is a "material cause" of increased depression, suicidal ideation, and sleep deprivation among teenagers—especially teen girls.
"Defendants have invested billions of dollars to intentionally design their products to be addictive and encourage use that they know to be problematic and highly detrimental to their users' mental health," the suit said. "[They] intentionally created an attractive nuisance to young children, but failed to provide adequate safeguards from the harmful effects they knew were occurring on their wholly owned and controlled digital premises."
Rodriguez is requesting a trial by jury, as well as an as-yet-unspecified amount of money to cover Selena's "past physical and mental pain and suffering" and "loss of enjoyment of life," medical expenses, and "loss of future income and earning capacity of Selena Rodriguez," among other damages.
Neither Meta nor Snap immediately responded to PCMag's request for comment. A Snapchat spokesperson, however, told Engadget last week that "We are devastated to hear of Selena's passing and our hearts go out to her family. While we can't comment on the specifics of active litigation, nothing is more important to use than the wellbeing of our community."
In the months following the death of Selena Rodriguez, The Wall Street Journal published a deep dive into Facebook's internal documents, including a report indicating the company was aware of the risks Instagram poses to teenage users. In September, whistleblower Frances Haugen confirmed the Journal's findings, saying that Facebook "realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, they'll make less money."
Facebook responded with the launch of Instagram's "Take a Break" feature; a hub that lets parents monitor their kids' in-app activity; and tighter restrictions on what younger users can and cannot access online. Snapchat, meanwhile, in October began cracking down on illegal drug sales on its platform following an increase in US teen and young adult overdose deaths linked to pills laced with fentanyl.