Meta Lawsuits: Facebook and Instagram
An increasing number of children and teens are experiencing harm caused by Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram. Many families have started to file lawsuits against Meta to pursue damages for the harms these social media platforms have caused children and teens.
Contact our law firm today for a free evaluation of your child or teen’s case.
2026 Updates On Lawsuits Against Meta, Facebook, and Instagram
Meta Pays Kentucky School District $9 Million to Settle Instagram and Facebook Addiction Lawsuit
Meta Platforms, owner of the popular social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, agreed to pay Breathitt County Schools in Kentucky $9 million to settle the lawsuit the district filed against them in 2023. The lawsuit alleged Meta created its products to be addictive, which harmed students’ mental health and ultimately resulted in the district having to allocate more financial resources to combat the negative mental health effects caused to its students.
Past Updates on Meta Lawsuits
Supreme Court Rejects Meta's Appeal in Vermont Social Media Addiction Case
On May 26, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Meta’s appeal to avoid a lawsuit brought by Vermont’s attorney general, which accuses the company of designing Instagram to be addictive to young users.
Meta challenged the suit by arguing it could not be sued in Vermont because the company lacks sufficient ties to the state. However, Vermont successfully countered that argument by demonstrating the platform’s large teen user base within the state established jurisdiction.
New Lawsuits Filed Against Meta After Two Teens Die by Suicide Following Instagram Sextortion
The Social Media Victims Law Center has filed new lawsuits against Meta on behalf of two teens who lost their lives to suicide as a result of being victimized by sextortion schemes on Instagram. Internal records from Meta show that the issues surrounding sextortion on Instagram had been known since 2019.
It is alleged that internal teams within Meta debated over whether or not to make teen accounts private by default. Ultimately, Meta’s internal growth team prioritized profit over safety, and teen accounts remained public. According to Meta’s own data estimates, making teen accounts private would have prevented 5.4 million unwanted interactions per day for users via direct message.
Meta Faces Ongoing Legal Challenges Over Instagram Addiction Lawsuit
Meta Platforms Inc. must face a lawsuit filed in 2023 by the Massachusetts Attorney General, who alleged that Instagram’s features, like infinite scrolling and autoplay, are intentionally designed to addict children and harm their mental health. In October 2024, a Massachusetts appeals court rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss the case, finding that the lawsuit targets Meta’s conduct, not user content.
This lawsuit is part of a broader multidistrict litigation (MDL) filed in 2022 against Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube, accusing them of designing platforms that encourage addictive behavior among youth. As of April 2025, the MDL includes over 1,700 cases. Meta denies the allegations and says it remains committed to user safety.
Instagram Flooded with Gore and Explicit Content—Meta’s Apology Falls Short
On February 27, Instagram users were flooded with graphic and violent content, including sexually explicit material, gore, and murder videos, even if they had settings to block such content. The disturbing videos appeared in Reels recommendations, reaching minors and users who did not follow the creators. Reports on Reddit claimed that child pornography was also visible.
Meta apologized, calling it an “error,” but did not clarify the scale of the issue. Major news outlets, including Bloomberg, WSJ, and The Guardian, reported on the incident, highlighting the widespread exposure and the platform’s failure to prevent it.
Mark Zuckerberg Avoids Personal Liability in Meta Addiction Lawsuits
A federal judge rejected a second attempt to hold Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., individually liable in two dozen lawsuits that accuse Meta and other social media companies of knowingly addicting children to their products. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing social media addiction multi-district litigation (MDL No. 3047), dismissed Zuckerberg as an individual defendant after ruling that a revised complaint still did not meet the legal standard for corporate officer liability.
The lawsuits alleged that Meta employees warned Zuckerberg that Facebook and Instagram were not safe for children, but Zuckerberg ignored the findings.
October 2024 - Meta Must Face Addiction Lawsuits
On October 15, California federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta must continue to face social media addiction lawsuits from more than 30 U.S. states that claim its social media platforms harm children and teenagers through addictive algorithm designs.
While the judge agreed that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shields Meta from some of the states’ claims, she also ruled that the states presented enough evidence of allegedly misleading statements to proceed with most claims. The decision will allow the states to collect more evidence and potentially proceed to trial.
The ruling affected two lawsuits against Meta that accuse the company of fueling anxiety, depression, and body image issues in youth by implementing harmful and addictive algorithms into their platforms. Additionally, the suits are two of many to accuse Meta of failing to adequately warn children and their parents about the risks of using its platforms. Lawsuits against the company and other social media giants aim to hold the companies accountable for their business practices and seek financial compensation for victims.
How Has Meta Acted Negligently to Cause Harm?
Lawsuits allege Meta chose to put profits over safety and neglected to address serious issues with their products and marketing tactics:
Meta's Products Are Defective by Design
Meta’s design defects are especially damaging because no reasonable parent or user would assume that Meta would intentionally create a harmful product. However, the evidence proves otherwise:
- Meta’s products lack safeguards that could prevent minors from exposure to harmful and exploitative content, even though such features could be easily included.
- Meta allows users under 13 to access its platforms in violation of federal laws and without parental consent by failing to require age or identity authentication.
- Meta’s products lack parental controls and are intentionally designed to thwart parental monitoring and restriction.
- Meta’s products intentionally recommend and promote harmful and exploitative content to young users.
- Meta’s products have no mechanisms to report sex offenders to law enforcement or allow users or parents to do the same.
- Meta has intentionally designed addictive products that exploit the incomplete brain development of youths and manipulate the brain reward system.
- Meta platforms lack a notification system for parents when teens and children engage in problematic use, even though this can easily be detected by the platforms’ algorithms.
Meta Has Failed to Warn Users and Parents About the Known Dangers of Their Products
A lack of warnings prevents Meta’s users from safely accessing the product because they cannot reasonably be expected to know about the product’s dangers:
- The potential for social media addiction and its effects
- The risk of sleep deprivation and its effects
- The lack of mechanisms to report minors’ screen time to their parents
Meta Has Demonstrated Negligence
Meta has neglected its duty to provide users with safe products as follows:
- Meta has neglected to allow independent testing of its products’ effects or to conduct adequate testing of its own.
- Meta has failed to provide ample warnings to users and their parents about the known dangers of using their products.
- Meta has neglected to investigate and restrict the use of Meta products by sexual predators.
- Meta has neglected to provide parents with the necessary tools to ensure its platforms are used in a safe and limited manner.
How Has Meta Harmed Youth?
Parents and guardians are filing lawsuits against Meta because of the mental and physical harm its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, have caused younger users:
Mental Health and Self-Image Harms
Studies show Facebook and Instagram have led to a rise in social media addiction in teens, leading to mental health issues and harm, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Suicide
- Self-Harm
- Eating Disorders
While experts have warned about the mental effects of social media for many years, the issue got more attention when Frances Haugen, a former Facebook manager, brought internal company documents to light that exposed Meta’s awareness of the harm it causes its users.
Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking
Age limits, parental controls, and other efforts often fail to prevent minors from using platforms like Facebook and Instagram, where they are at risk of being contacted and exploited by predators. Multiple lawsuits against Meta claim underage victims were harassed or solicited by adults on the company’s platforms, further traumatizing those already dealing with the mental health impacts of social media addiction.
Cyberbullying, Hate Speech, and Exposure
Social media platforms are frequently criticized for failing to prevent cyberbullying, harassment, and hate speech, which can leave minor users feeling unsafe and alone at school and at home. Algorithms designed to maximize engagement on Facebook and Instagram can also expose minors to age-inappropriate, harmful, or potentially dangerous content.
Individual Meta Lawsuits
Our law firm has filed hundreds of cases against Meta to date, representing over a thousand victims who have suffered harm because of Facebook and Instagram. Some of the high-profile cases different individuals, organizations, and agencies are pursuing include:
K.G.M.
K.G.M. v. Meta et al. was the first social media addiction case to reach trial under California law. The lawsuit was brought in 2023 by Kaley, who was then 17 and is referred to by her initials K.G.M. in the suit. Kaley, who began using Instagram at age 9, accused Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok of using features on their platforms to encourage compulsive use, causing her mental health to suffer.
While TikTok and Snap settled the claims against them, Kaley’s case against Meta and Google went to trial as a bellwether for a consolidated group of hundreds of cases. The companies were handed a $6M judgment in March 2026, with the jury finding that they designed their platforms negligently.
Selena Rodriquez
Our firm is representing the family of 11-year-old Selena Rodriguez in a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta and Snap over an extreme social media addiction that contributed to her suicide.
Selena was a heavy user of Instagram and Snapchat, at one point running away from home to continue using social media when her mother took away her electronic devices. Selena’s addiction caused her to develop severe sleep deprivation, depression, eating disorders, and self-harm behaviors, eventually leading to her death.
The lawsuit claims Meta and Snap knowingly designed unreasonably dangerous and addictive products with the knowledge that they could harm minor users like Selena.
Zackery Nazario
The SMVLC is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta, TikTok, and New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority over the death of 15-year-old Zackery Nazario. After viewing a “Subway Surfing Challenge” video on social media in February 2023, Zackery climbed atop a subway car and was struck in the head by a low beam, leading to his death.
The suit claims Meta and TikTok were negligent in promoting these videos to impressionable teens like Zackery, profiting from content that could directly inspire and encourage viewers to engage in dangerous activity.
M.D.
In 2021, we filed a lawsuit against Meta and Snap on behalf of plaintiffs including Brittney Doffing, whose then-15-year-old daughter M.D. suffered significant harm from her use of Instagram and Snapchat. Within weeks of being gifted a smartphone and opening accounts on the platforms, M.D.’s sleep and academic performance significantly worsened.
M.D. later developed an eating disorder based on content recommended to her by Instagram and Snapchat, and also received sexually explicit messages from adult men through the apps on multiple occasions. Doffing’s efforts to curb her daughter’s addiction resulted in M.D. running away from home at least once and being hospitalized twice for psychiatric episodes.
Our lawsuit accused Meta and Snap of knowingly designing their platforms to be addictive in a way that could foreseeably harm minor users.
Christopher J. Dawley
Our firm announced a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta and Snap in 2022 over the suicide of 17-year-old Christopher J. “CJ” Dawley. CJ’s use of Facebook and Instagram became an addiction, leading to sleep deprivation and body image issues. While CJ’s family felt he never showed signs of depression, his body image problems led to his suicide in January 2015.
The lawsuit calls for social media companies to prioritize the health of users over profits by instituting greater protections for minors, improving parental controls, and curbing the intentionally addictive features included on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
School District Lawsuits Against Meta
Over 1,000 school districts across the U.S. have sued Meta and other social media companies over the impacts their platforms have had on students’ mental health, contending they should be responsible for covering costs associated with students’ social media-related addiction, depression, anxiety, academic issues, self-harm, and more.
In May, Meta reached a settlement to resolve a Kentucky district’s claims in what was set to be a bellwether trial for similar lawsuits. Breathitt School District was pursuing $60 million in damages prior to the settlement, claiming that Meta and others should be held responsible for harm caused by the intentionally addictive design of their platforms. More trials are still approaching as hundreds of other school district lawsuits continue to move forward.
Attorney General Lawsuits Against Meta
A coalition of 42 attorneys general — representing 41 states and Washington, D.C. — has filed lawsuits against Meta over its exploitative practices. These lawsuits claim Meta intentionally designed features on Facebook and Instagram to be addictive, knowing that they could ensnare underage users and cause significant harm to children’s mental health.
Who Can File a Lawsuit Against Meta?
Parents may be able to file a lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram on behalf of their children or teens if they were born after the year 2000 and have been physically and mentally harmed as a result of using the platforms. Common examples of harm in these cases include:
- Suicide or suicide attempts
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Eating disorders
- Loneliness
Some argue that many teens would struggle with these same issues even if they weren’t on social media platforms. However, studies continue to show that social media, such as Meta platforms, contributes to low self-esteem, poor body image, fear of missing out, and mental and emotional health challenges that lead to worsening mental states.
Contact one of our lawyers today for a free case evaluation to determine your eligibility to file a harm lawsuit against Meta.
What Damages Are Available in a Lawsuit Against Meta?
Plaintiffs can recover a variety of different damages in a social media addiction lawsuit against Meta. However, the amount of damages available will depend on the unique facts behind each case, and future results may not fully resemble the few lawsuits that have been resolved so far.
Economic Damages
Economic damages can compensate for the financial costs of social media addiction, including medical bills and ongoing treatment costs for mental health disorders.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate for impacts beyond monetary losses, such as emotional distress and pain and suffering. The jury in K.G.M. v. Meta et al. awarded $3 million in compensatory damages, which include both economic and non-economic damages.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are granted to penalize the defendant in rare cases involving intentional harm or extreme recklessness. In K.G.M. v. Meta et al., the jury granted $3 million in punitive damages to the plaintiff.
If your child or teen was physically or mentally harmed as a result of their addiction to social media platforms, you may have legal options. We can help explain your rights.
How Do You File a Social Media Harm Lawsuit Against Meta?
To file a lawsuit against Meta for harms that resulted from the use of Instagram or Facebook, parents of teens should take the following steps:
1. Talk to Our Lawyers
Your first step is to contact our experienced social media lawyers who can explain your rights, examine your case, and guide you through the legal process.
2. Examine the Case and Investigate
Our lawyers will review your child’s case to assess the damage and determine the cause. This process will involve a thorough investigation, research, and gathering evidence.
3. Start the Paperwork and Filing
There are several hoops to jump through when you’re ready to file your Facebook or Instagram lawsuit for mental health. Our firm can help guide you on how to prepare and file paperwork related to the lawsuit.
4. Pay Attention to Dates and Deadlines
Our team will help keep you up to date and informed on the deadlines you must follow, including important filing deadlines.
5. Consider Offers and Settlements
These lawsuits are still developing and settlement amounts will become more clear as the lawsuits against Meta continue in 2025.
6. Get the Compensation You Deserve
As our client, our law firms goal is to seek justice on behalf of your child or teen and get you the compensation you rightfully deserve.
Experienced Product Liability and Mass Tort Lawyers Holding Facebook and Instagram Legally Accountable
When your child or teen has experienced mental or physical harm related to their use of Facebook and Instagram, it’s time to talk to a lawyer. Our founder, Attorney Matthew P. Bergman, and our team of social media lawyers at the Social Media Victims Law Center have over 100 years of combined experience handling product liability cases and are on a mission to help families seek justice against social media companies.
If your child has experienced mental or physical harm from using one of Meta’s products, contact our law firm today for a free case evaluation: (206) 309-6452.
Our firm exists to hold technology companies accountable for the harm their products have inflicted on children and teens. By prioritizing profit over safety, these companies have contributed to serious mental and physical health crises, leaving families worldwide to bear the consequences. Through litigation, we pursue justice, accountability, and lasting reform.