Amanda Todd’s family joins American parents in lawsuit against social media giants – Brandon Sun

WASHINGTON – When BC teenager Amanda Todd sat down at her computer and detailed the brutal bullying and extortion she faced on social media, it sent a shockwave through parents everywhere. Twelve years later, his family joins others in a lawsuit alleging these dangers to children continue online.

Just weeks after the viral video was released, 15-year-old Todd died by suicide in October 2012.

“Why isn’t life safer for children?” his mother, Carol Todd, asked in an interview from Port Coquitlam. “Why are more children being harmed?”

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court earlier this month on behalf of 11 families, including two Canadians, who said their children suffered physical and mental harm due to social media platforms. The report alleges that some of the world’s biggest tech companies are knowingly designing and marketing defective products for children in order to increase engagement numbers.

Some children have ended their lives after being targeted by strangers in sextortion, in which a person threatens to reveal sexually inappropriate information or images. Others developed eating disorders and depression and had to be hospitalized.

The lawsuit names tech giants Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), as well as Snapchat, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, Discord, and Google, which owns YouTube.

“What happened to these children is neither an accident nor a coincidence. “This was a predictable result of deliberate design decisions they made to maximize safety engagement,” said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which prosecuted the case.

“They make money by selling ads to children and selling children’s data.”

Google said the claims were not true. Google creates services and policies with experts to provide age-appropriate experiences and parental controls, spokesman José Castañeda said.

Other companies did not comment. Websites generally say they have age restrictions and ban harmful content. TikTok’s website says it moderates content that “contains goods or activities that may be risky, addictive, dangerous, fraudulent, or otherwise require a higher level of care.”

An increasing number of lawsuits have been filed against technology giants alleging that children are being harmed by social media.

The latest lawsuit points to internal documents and investigations, including the Facebook Documents released by a whistleblower. He quoted from the meta documentation: “Young people are the best. “You want to bring people to your service at a young and early age.”

Todd started using Facebook in 2008. The platform was new, and like most people in the world, her mother thought it was designed to be fun and safe. Todd soon fell prey to years of extortion.

Dutchman Aydın Çoban began to blackmail Todd with a photo taken of him lifting his shirt during the conversation. His trial in Canada heard Coban used 22 online aliases to harass Todd over two years, starting when he was 12.

Coban was convicted of harassment and extortion in Canada. He was also convicted in the Netherlands on similar charges related to the online blackmailing of 33 teenage girls and gay men.

The lawsuit alleges that there are several steps Meta could take to make its product safer for minors and prevent strangers from reaching children.

The case also involves the family of another Canadian teenager who died more than a decade after Todd’s case made headlines across the country.

Harry Burke went to his father for help after the 17-year-old Prince Edward Island boy sent a racy photo on Snapchat and was blackmailed for money.

The lawsuit said his parents planned to go to the RCMP in the morning, but Burke died by suicide that night.

The lawsuit also represents American parents who say their children have become depressed and suicidal because of social media platforms.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a tobacco-style warning label on platforms earlier this year, saying the mental health crisis among young people was an emergency and “social media has emerged as a major contributor.”

Bergman said the lawsuit argues “these are dangerous products and foreseeably harm children.” He said they were designed to increase youth interest by showing more extreme material while encouraging them to engage more with the platform, leading to addiction and psychological damage.

Concerns about social media security have sparked outrage from lawmakers on both sides of the border.

Canada’s Liberal government is trying to pass a bill addressing online harms. It has faced criticism, including from the Opposition Conservatives, who said it would create a new bureaucracy.

The US is also moving forward with its own Children’s Online Safety Act to create a “duty of care”, a legal term that requires companies to take reasonable steps to prevent harm. The bill was passed in the Senate, but it is not clear what will happen in the Assembly.

Carol Todd encouraged parents to connect with resources like the Canadian Child Protection Center and make sure they know they can talk to an adult if something happens to their child.

He said it was important for other families to join the cause to make social media safer for children.

“I can’t bring my child back… this is to keep other children safe.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press