The family of a preteen girl is claiming that Facebook’s Instagram app resulted in her suffering from an eating disorder, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts according to a recently filed lawsuit.
that a lawsuit was recently filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this week by a family blaming Facebook and its Instagram platform for their daughter’s eating disorder, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts., a leaked trove of internal research documents that showed the company was aware that Instagram was having a negative effect on the body-image and mental-health issues of young teenagers, particularly young girls.
“Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,” said another slide. “This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.” The case was filed on behalf of Alexis Spence, who first created her Instagram account at age 11 without her parent’s permission, violating the platform’s minimum age requirement of 13. The lawsuit claims that Instagram’s algorithm directed Spence into an echo chamber that glorified anorexia and self-harm and promoted her addiction.a Seattle-based group advocating on the behalf of families of teens harmed by social media.
Matthew P. Bergman, who is representing Spence and her family, commented: “If you look at the extensive research that it [Meta] performed, they knew exactly what they were doing to kids, and they kept doing it. I wish I could say that Alexis’ case is aberrational. It’s not. The only aberration is that she survived.”
Bergman is also representing Tammy Rodriguez, an Enfield, Connecticut, woman who filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Snap in January over the companies’ alleged contribution to her 11-year-old daughter’s suicide last summer.