CT Mom Files Lawsuit Against Social Media

ABC News has reported that a Connecticut mother filed a lawsuit last month against Meta and Snap for allegedly causing her 11-year-old daughter's death.

The mom, Tammy Rodriguez, claims the "defective design, negligence, and unreasonable dangerous features" against the social media platforms of Meta and Snap were the reason her daughter, Selena, took her own life. A Meta spokesperson told ABC,

"Our thoughts are with the families affected by these difficult issues. Given this is an ongoing legal matter, we're unable to comment further at this time."

My immediate question would be, how can an attorney definitively prove that allegation? Matthew Bergman is the attorney suing the two social media platforms and is the founder of 'Social Media Victims Law Center. (SMVLC)

The lawsuit alleges that Selena suffered "severe mental harm, leading to physical injury" while using social media, which caused a two-year addiction to Instagram and Snapchat. Tammy also had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency psychiatric hospitalization.

The more time that Selena spent on Instagram and Snapchat, the worse her condition became. It became her whole world. There were times when Selena became combative when her mom would attempt to confiscate her phone. Tammy told ABC News,

"We definitely started noticing that she stopped interacting with us, and she was a very recluse toward the end of everything, and she just always wanted to be on the phone,"

Mental Health professionals agree that social media can become an addiction especially in younger adults because the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until their early 20s so they haven't developed the skills to know when to pull back.