➢ Start Your Claim Today
Thousands of lawsuits have been filed by families across the U.S. against social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Roblox, and Discord.
These lawsuits have included allegations involving social media addiction and teen mental health problems; wrongful death claims involving teen suicide or drug overdoses; child sexual exploitation, grooming, and sextortion claims; and privacy lawsuits involving the unauthorized collection of personal and health data.
If you or your family were harmed after using Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or other online platforms, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation
Find out whether you qualify or start your claim today by contacting the lawyers at Hissey Mulderig & Friend toll-free at 1-866-806-8117, or by filling out the free claims submission form on the right side of this page.
➢ How Social Media Lawsuits Work
Social media lawsuits are product liability cases. They do not seek to hold a company responsible for what another user posted. They allege that the platform itself was designed in a way that caused harm.
The design features named in these lawsuits include endless scrolling feeds, autoplay video, timed push notifications, recommendation algorithms that promote content about self-harm and disordered eating, friend suggestion tools that connect adult strangers to children, and disappearing messages that conceal abuse from parents.
For years, courts dismissed lawsuits against social media companies before a jury ever heard them. Judges are now allowing these cases to move forward, juries have returned verdicts against these companies, and several platforms have agreed to settlements before the cases ever reached trial.
➢ Social Media Addiction & Teen Mental Health Lawsuits
Lawsuits filed against Meta, ByteDance, Snap, and Google allege that Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube were engineered to cause compulsive use in children and teenagers, resulting in depression, anxiety, eating disorders, sleep loss, and self-harm. The American Psychological Association reached similar conclusions in its health advisory on adolescent social media use, which recommends screening teens for problematic use and warns that platforms should not steer young users toward content encouraging self-harm or disordered eating.
As of July 2026, 2,893 lawsuits were pending in the federal social media litigation. On March 25, 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable and awarded one young plaintiff $6 million, including $3 million in compensatory damages and $3 million in punitive damages, finding that the companies acted with malice. Snapchat and TikTok settled with the same plaintiff before trial.
Similar claims have been filed over gaming platforms built around the same engagement features, including lawsuits alleging that Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft introduced children to addictive gaming patterns through design choices meant to increase playtime and in-game spending.
Families may be eligible to file a social media addiction lawsuit if they meet the following case criteria:
- A child began heavy use of a social media platform before the age of 18;
- The child was diagnosed with or treated for depression, anxiety, an eating disorder, or self-harm;
- Medical, counseling, or school records document the injury.
➢ Wrongful Death Lawsuits Involving Social Media
Families who lost a child have filed wrongful death lawsuits against the social media companies. A wrongful death lawsuit is a claim brought by surviving family members after a death caused by another party’s conduct.
Three types of claims have been filed. The first involves teen suicide following documented addiction, bullying, or exposure to self-harm content. In December 2025, two families sued Meta alleging that Instagram failed to adopt basic safety features against known teen sextortion schemes, and that their sons’ suicides were a foreseeable result.
The second set of wrongful death claims involves fatal overdoses from counterfeit pills purchased through a platform. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has warned that fake prescription pills are widely sold on social media and that a large share of them contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl.
Sixty-five families have sued Snap in Los Angeles County, alleging that disappearing messages and weak age verification created an open drug market where teenagers purchased fentanyl-laced pills.
The third type of social media wrongful death lawsuits involves deaths following dangerous viral challenges promoted by platform algorithms.
Families may be eligible to file a wrongful death claim against social media platforms if they meet the following case criteria:
- A child or family member died by suicide, drug overdose, or injury connected to social media use;
- Records document the connection, such as phone contents, account messages, a police report, or toxicology findings;
- The surviving family member is permitted to bring a wrongful death claim under state law.
➢ Child Sexual Exploitation, Grooming & Sextortion Lawsuits
Lawsuits filed by families across the country allege that platform design features allowed adult predators to locate, contact, groom, and exploit children. The FBI reports that sextortion can begin on any site, app, messaging platform, or game where people meet, and that offenders frequently pose as peers before threatening to release explicit images.
Several lawsuits have been filed across the U.S. in connection with allegations of child sexual exploitation, grooming, or sextortion in connection with the use of social media or other online platforms:
- In March 2026, a federal lawsuit was filed against Roblox, Discord, and Snap on behalf of a North Carolina teenager who was contacted by one predator through a gaming platform, coerced into sending explicit images by a second, and located and assaulted by a third.
- In June 2026, a Missouri family sued Snap after a 12-year-old was groomed and sexually assaulted by an adult who found her through the app’s friend recommendation and location-sharing features.
- Families and state attorneys general have also filed Roblox lawsuits alleging that weak safety protections let predators contact, groom, and exploit children on the gaming platform.
- On March 24, 2026, a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million for enabling child sexual exploitation. That case was filed by a state rather than a family, but it was the first jury to rule on these child safety allegations.
Families may be eligible to file an exploitation or sextortion lawsuit if they meet the following case criteria:
- A minor was groomed, sexually exploited, extorted for images or money, or assaulted by an adult first encountered on a platform;
- Usernames, screenshots, or account records document the contact;
- Additional evidence exists, such as a police report, a criminal case, or counseling records.
➢ Social Media Privacy & Data Tracking Lawsuits
Social media companies collect information well beyond what users post on their platforms. The Federal Trade Commission has explained how tracking pixels hidden on outside websites and apps record what a user views, clicks, and types, then send that information to advertising companies.
On August 1, 2025, a federal jury in California found Meta liable under the California Invasion of Privacy Act for collecting reproductive health data from users of the Flo period tracking app. The other defendants, Flo Health, Google, and Flurry, agreed to pay $59.5 million.
Privacy claims typically proceed as class actions, meaning one lawsuit covers many people at once. Individuals usually join an existing case rather than filing their own.
Individuals may be eligible to join a privacy lawsuit if they meet the following case criteria:
- Use of a health, fertility, mental health, or medical app or website that shared data with a social media company;
- Facial recognition or photo tagging by a platform in a state with a biometric privacy law;
- Exposure of personal information in a platform data breach.
➢ Contact Our Law Firm to Start Your Claim Today
If you or a member of your family used Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Roblox, or Discord and were affected by social media addiction, mental health problems, wrongful death, child sexual exploitation, or the unauthorized collection of your personal data, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation.
Our law firm, Hissey Mulderig & Friend, is currently investigating claims involving social media addiction, online child exploitation, or other lawsuits connected to the use of social media and other online platforms. There is no cost for a consultation with one of our attorneys, and no legal fees unless we successfully recover damages in your case.
Find out whether you qualify to file a social media lawsuit or start your claim today by contacting the lawyers at Hissey Mulderig & Friend toll-free at 1-866-806-8117, or by filling out the free claims submission form at the top of this page.
