Family Files Lawsuit Against Meta, Blames Instagram for Daughter's Self-harm and Eating Disorder

A preteen girl's "addictive" use of Instagram resulted in self-harm, an eating disorder, and thoughts of suicide over several years, according to a lawsuit filed against the social media platform's parent company, Meta.

The suit, filed late on Monday, June 6, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, heavily cites the Facebook Papers, a trove of internal Meta research documents leaked last fall. It revealed that the tech giant knew Instagram was worsening not only body image but also other mental health issues among teenage girls.

NBC News reported that the case was filed on behalf of Alexis Spence, who was able to create her first account on Instagram at the age of 11 without the knowledge of her parents and in violation of the social media platform's minimum age requirement of 13.

Lawsuit blames Instagram for Spence's problems

The complaint alleges that the artificial intelligence engine of Instagram almost immediately steered the then-fifth grader into an echo chamber of content that glorified self-cutting and anorexia and systematically fostered her addiction to using the social media app. The lawsuit was filed by the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center, a group that advocates for families of teenagers harmed online.

Now 19 years old, the formerly happy and confident Spence has been hospitalized for anxiety, anorexia, and depression, the Independent reported. According to the lawsuit, Spence fights to stay in recovery every day due to the harmful features and content Instagram relentlessly promoted and provided to her in its effort to increase engagement.

All eyes are on this case as it is the first lawsuit of its kind to draw from the Facebook Papers, which according to Spence's attorneys, exposes the real human harm behind its findings. The lawsuit also features previously unpublicized documents from the Facebook leaks, including one in which tech giant Meta identified "tweens" as "herd animals" who "want to find communities where they can fit in."

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Meta knew exactly what they were doing to children

Spence's attorneys argue that such documents demonstrate the efforts of Meta to recruit underage users to its platforms, according to Acrofan.

Matthew P. Bergman, the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center and the one representing Spence and her family, said that if you look at the extensive research that Meta performed, they knew exactly what they were doing to kids, and they kept doing it. Bergman added that he wishes he could say that Alexis' case is aberrational, but it is not, and the only aberration is that she survived.

Apart from Spence, Bergman also represents Enfield, Connecticut native Tammy Rodriguez. She filed a lawsuit back in January against Meta and Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, over the two companies' alleged roles in the suicide of her 11-year-old daughter last summer.

Liza Crenshaw, a spokesperson for Instagram, declined to comment on the Spence lawsuit, citing that the case is "active litigation."

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