Parents who lost children to social media harms question Meta settlement

Oakland, California, the US – During the COVID-۱۹ pandemic, Erin Popolo’s then-۱۶-year-old daughter Emily took a job at a cafe near her home in Bridgewater, New Jersey, making pizza. Emily had always battled mental health issues, but when some classmates posted photos of her with an apron and hairnet on social media and began cyberbullying her, it got worse.

Emily had joined Facebook and Instagram just before the pandemic and stayed on because “she wanted to have friends, be in a group”, things she struggled with otherwise, Popolo said. She had used the report button to take down the negative comments against her daughter, but to no avail. Emily died by suicide a few months later, at ۱۷.

Last week, Popolo joined a group of parents outside a United States federal court in Oakland. Hearings had begun in a case in which ۲۹ US states sued Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for design flaws in its products that the plaintiffs said led to children becoming addicted and allowed them to be contacted by drug dealers, cyberbullied, extorted and abused.

The high-stakes case sought up to $۲۰۰bn in fines as well as changes to Meta’s products and business practices.

On Wednesday, Meta settled the case for $۱۸bn and agreed to increase protections for young users.

While the settlement has been hailed as historic, Popolo asked: “What evidence did they not want to get out?”

The trial had started on August ۱۸ and was expected to last six weeks.

Mary Rodee, whose ۱۵-year-old son died by suicide after becoming the target of online extortion, said the measures announced on Wednesday would not have protected him.

“We were robbed of seeing the evidence” because of the settlement, she told Al Jazeera.

“Our kids need to be protected from your algorithms and ads,” she said about Meta, pointing out that the settlement does not restrict advertising to minors or make algorithms transparent.

She said she hopes there will be more cases against Meta. She wants to see convictions and increased transparency in their processes.

The states’ case had included internal documents showing that Meta’s top executives knew of the security loopholes in their platforms.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Instagram’s chief executive Adam Mosseri said that Instagram had added a pop-up feature to all teen accounts in ۲۰۲۴, asking them to take a break from scrolling, as well as a quiet mode for notifications.

Jason Slothouber, from the Colorado attorney general’s office, asked if Mosseri was aware that parents had no way of knowing that only ۱ percent to ۲ percent of children used this feature. Mosseri confirmed they did not. He was scheduled to testify again on Wednesday, but then the settlement was reached.

‘Keeps kids online’

Lori Schott, a resident of Colorado, said she lost her ۱۸-year-old daughter, Annalee, to suicide.

Annalee had received a constant stream of messages, Schott said, that had made her feel she was not beautiful enough.

Schott, who had also been outside court on the first day of the trial, as well as in Los Angeles, where Meta was previously sued in March, said Instagram needs to introduce more stringent measures to protect teens.

“I would like to see less addictive design, including limits on infinite scroll, autoplay streaks, constant notifications, and algorithmic feeds,” she said of features that form the bedrock of Instagram’s model. “It keeps kids online.”

“I would like to see more control over the algorithms, including their ability to turn off personalised recommendations or use the chronological feeds that were pushing content to my daughter, like dealing with suicide and eating disorders.”

In chronological feeds, the latest content is added on top, and critics say this keeps users hooked as they keep coming back to the app to see if something new has come.

As part of the settlement, Meta has agreed to some changes, including setting two-hour time limits for users under ۱۸, as well as night-time and school-time blocks.

On the first day of the trial in Oakland, California, Popolo, Schott and other parents held a banner with the names of the ۳۹۸ children who they say had died because of social media addiction and bullying.

Popolo said the number of children on their banner has gone up from ۳۵۶ in March, when parents held it up outside the Los Angeles court. In that case, Meta was handed a $۴.۲m fine.

Apart from cyberbullies, parents spoke of drug dealers and overseas extortion gangs contacting their children through fake accounts and selling them fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, or extorting them for money after getting them in embarrassing situations.

In upstate New York, Mary Rodee and Darren Basford’s ۱۵-year-old son Riley had always wanted a snowmobile, and had turned to Facebook Messenger in March ۲۰۲۱ to look for one.

Once there, he began receiving messages from someone he thought was a teenage girl. They exchanged private photos, after which the girl, who was actually a group of men from the Ivory Coast, began threatening to send the pictures to his parents and share them widely if he did not pay them $۳,۵۰۰.

Riley asked for time, but the threats escalated throughout the next day, while he got his braces fixed with his mother and got a milkshake. She dropped him off at his father’s house to spend the night.

In the early hours of the morning, Basford found Riley dead. He had died by suicide, Basford said, rather than facing the shame of his private photos being shared with family and friends.

Riley’s mother, Mary Rodee, stood outside the court in Oakland on the first day of the trial, just as she had in Los Angeles, and had hoped to see Meta held to account.

There are dangers beyond extortion, including easy contact with drug dealers.

Deb Schmill’s ۱۵-year-old daughter Becca was raped by a boy she met on a chat group and then cyberbullied. The bullies “knew she was vulnerable at the time”, Schmill told Al Jazeera.

“Kids have always looked for vulnerabilities in others to bully them,” she added. “With unfettered social media, we have handed them a tool and magnified bullying.”

In ۲۰۲۰, Schmill had not known that she could report the abuse and try to take it down.

Becca battled growing mental health issues from the rape and bullying and tried to buy cocaine online to deal with her pain. She ended up buying fentanyl that a drug dealer sold her in the guise of cocaine. At ۱۸, Becca died of an overdose.

“Becca was the love of my life. We were always holding hands,” Schmill said.

She attended US Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in February ۲۰۲۴ when Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, testified. She held up Becca’s photo as Zuckerberg turned to her and other mothers who had lost children and apologised.

Schmill, who now runs a foundation in Becca’s name, said drug dealers and extortionists would not have easy access to their children if Meta’s safety protocols worked.

In late ۲۰۲۳, a researcher from her foundation set up accounts on Instagram as a ۱۴-year-old and connected with drug dealers. When they found the dealers’ accounts, the researchers reported them to Instagram. More than ۹۵ percent of the accounts reported were not taken down, Schmill told Al Jazeera.

Her foundation did not publish the research, and will use it as part of a lawsuit.

Schmill also helped fund a study by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health that showed social media companies made $۱۱bn in US advertising revenues from minors.

A ‘terrible club’

It is a “terrible club” of parents who lost their children to social media harms, said Maurine Molak, whose son, David, died by suicide after being bullied on Instagram. In March, Molak attended the trial in New Mexico, where Meta was found liable for causing harms to children and asked to pay a $۳۷۵m fine. That was followed by another $۵۶۷m fine earlier this month. Meta has said it would appeal the verdict.

“We don’t want these trials. We want the harms not to be done,” Molak told Al Jazeera.

Matthew Bergman, a Seattle-based lawyer who founded the Social Media Victims Law Center to represent such parents, said the parents had pressed on knowing they may not see a win.

“Never in ۳۰ years of my practice have I met clients more committed to justice than this,” he said. He had parents who slept outside court and travelled from the United Kingdom to attend the US hearings.

In a statement released after the settlement, Meta said it now looked at other social media platforms to bring similar change.

“The fact is that teens move fluidly between dozens of apps a day. All platforms should empower parents and support teens by putting the same measures in place, because we know that when teens are restricted on one app, they simply move to another,” Meta said.

Cases against other social media platforms are also building up.

Amy Neville’s ۱۴-year-old son Alex died of an accidental fentanyl overdose after a drug dealer sold it to him on Snapchat as OxyContin, an opioid of lesser intensity, to deal with pain.

Meeting with company officials to ask for change had not yielded anything. Now, Neville is among a group of parents who have filed a similar case against Snapchat in Los Angeles, which comes up for hearing in November ۲۰۲۷.

The attorney general of Pennsylvania also filed a lawsuit against Snapchat on Tuesday, alleging that the platform was designed to keep children addicted.

“I’d like to know what evidence we don’t get to see,” Neville said of the Meta trial, which could have an impact on her case, as well as the practices of other social media companies.

Popolo, who had planned to return to hear Zuckerberg’s testimony in the Oakland trial, said she plans to continue the fight.

The cyberbullies had not only harassed her daughter Emily in life; they also sent bomb threats to the funeral home where Emily’s funeral took place.

Since it happened during the pandemic, Erin could have only ۷۵ people present and beamed it on Zoom for others. The bullies, all young people, at least one of whom was a minor, had intercepted the screening and shown inappropriate material on it.

“[This settlement] does not mean that we do not need to keep the pressure on to get legislation at the federal level,” Popolo said. “This fight is far from over.”

If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide, these organisations may be able to help.