Facebook and Snapchat have been Sued by a Teenager’s family

Popular Social Media Platforms Facebook and Snapchat have been sued by the mother of a teenager who died by suicide. The mother believes that these social media platforms were the reasons behind the death of her child. On Monday, Donna Dawley accused social-media platforms of deteriorating the mental health of her son named Christopher in a Federal lawsuit filed in Wisconsin. She believes this eventually led to the suicide of her son in the year 2015 when he was 17 years old. Social Media Victims Law Center represents the case of Mrs. Dawley. Social Media Victims Law Center states that both the social media platforms are and have been "aware of the addictive nature of their products and failed to protect minors in the name of more clicks and additional revenue."

Christopher’s family further informed that Christopher began using Snapchat and the Meta-owned platforms Facebook and Instagram when he was 15. At that time he was not that mature and was too young to understand and sign the apps' terms of use. In the filed Lawsuit, Mrs. Dawley said: "Each of defendants' products contains unique product features which are intended to and do encourage addiction, and unlawful content and use of said products, to the detriment of defendants' minor users.” United States laws like the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, protect only minors under the age of 13.