Your daughter stopped eating dinner with the family. She started taking her phone to her room, door closed, scrolling until 2 or 3 in the morning. Her grades dropped. She stopped seeing friends in person. When you finally got her to a therapist, the diagnosis was major depressive disorder and an eating disorder. The therapist asked about screen time. You thought about the six, seven, sometimes eight hours a day on Instagram and TikTok. You thought it was just what teenagers do now. You blamed yourself for not setting better boundaries. You wondered if you had failed as a parent.
Or maybe you are the teenager. You are 19 now, looking back at middle school and high school, trying to understand why you felt so hollow, so anxious, why you hurt yourself, why you could not stop comparing your body to the bodies you saw online. You thought something was wrong with you. You thought you were weak, that you lacked discipline, that everyone else was handling it fine. The apps felt like the only place where you could be yourself, and also like the place that was slowly erasing who you were.
What you did not know is that there were teams of engineers and researchers working to make sure you felt exactly that way. Court filings now allege that the companies behind the platforms you used had research showing their products were causing psychological harm to children and adolescents, and that they made deliberate design choices to maximize the time you spent on their apps, even when their own internal studies warned of the consequences.
What Happened
The injury is not one moment. It is a slow accumulation. It starts with checking the app a few times a day and becomes checking it a few times an hour. It becomes the first thing you do when you wake up and the last thing you do before sleep, and often the thing that prevents sleep. It becomes a feeling of panic when the phone is not within reach. It becomes measuring your worth by the number of likes, the number of followers, the number of views.
For many young people, it becomes depression. Not sadness, but a flatness, a loss of interest in things that used to bring joy. It becomes anxiety that sits in the chest, a constant hum of worry about what people are saying, what you are missing, whether you are good enough. It becomes compulsive behaviors: checking, scrolling, refreshing, posting, deleting, checking again.
For some, it becomes self-harm. Cutting, burning, hitting. The lawsuits describe young people who were exposed to content that normalized and even glorified self-injury, and who found themselves unable to stop engaging with that content even as it made them worse. For others, it becomes eating disorders. Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, orthorexia. The algorithm learns what holds your attention and shows you more of it. If you linger on images of extreme thinness, it shows you more extreme thinness. If you search for dieting tips, it shows you pro-anorexia content.
Parents describe children who became unrecognizable. Teens who had been social and engaged became withdrawn and irritable. Sleep schedules collapsed. Academic performance fell. Some young people were hospitalized. Some attempted suicide. Some succeeded.
The Connection
The platforms are designed to be addictive. That is not metaphor. The lawsuits allege that the companies studied the same psychological principles that make slot machines and cigarettes addictive, and built those principles into their products.
The mechanism is the dopamine loop. When you post something and get likes, your brain releases dopamine, the same neurotransmitter involved in rewards and pleasure. But the reward is unpredictable. You do not know if you will get five likes or fifty. You do not know if your video will get 100 views or 100,000. That unpredictability is what makes it so powerful. The brain keeps seeking the reward, keeps checking, keeps posting, trying to recreate the high.
The platforms use variable reward schedules, the same mechanism that makes gambling addictive. They use infinite scroll, so there is no natural stopping point. They use autoplay, so the next video starts before you have decided to keep watching. They use push notifications calibrated to bring you back just as you are starting to disengage. According to lawsuits filed in multiple jurisdictions, internal documents show that engineers A/B tested different versions of these features to see which ones were most effective at increasing daily active users and time spent on the platform.
A study published in JAMA Psychiatry in 2019 followed over 6,000 adolescents and found that teens who spent more than three hours per day on social media had significantly higher rates of internalizing problems, including depression and anxiety. The relationship was dose-dependent: more time on social media correlated with worse mental health outcomes.
Research published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in 2019 examined nearly 11,000 14-year-olds in the UK and found that greater social media use was associated with worse sleep, more cyberbullying, lower self-esteem, and poorer body image, particularly in girls. The study found that these factors explained most of the relationship between social media use and depressive symptoms.
A 2020 study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology analyzed data from over 200,000 adolescents and found that between 2010 and 2015, the rates of major depressive episodes increased by 52 percent in adolescents. The researchers noted that the increase coincided with the rise of smartphone ownership and social media use, and was more pronounced in girls.
For eating disorders, the connection is more direct. A 2021 study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders found that exposure to appearance-focused social media content was associated with increased body dissatisfaction, internalization of beauty ideals, and eating disorder symptoms in adolescent girls. The algorithm amplifies this exposure. Court filings allege that internal research conducted by these companies showed similar findings, and that the companies were aware their platforms were particularly harmful to teenage girls.
What The Lawsuits Allege They Knew
In October 2021, a former Facebook product manager named Frances Haugen testified before Congress and provided thousands of pages of internal Facebook documents to lawmakers and journalists. These documents, which became known as the Facebook Papers, form the basis of many allegations in the lawsuits now being filed against Meta.
According to the complaints, internal research conducted by Facebook in 2019 found that 32 percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. The research, as described in court filings, found that Instagram was harmful to a significant portion of teenage users, particularly around issues of body image and self-worth. The lawsuits allege that Facebook was aware of these findings and did not disclose them to the public or to parents.
A March 2020 internal presentation cited in the lawsuits allegedly stated that Facebook was aware that its products could be addictive, and that the company understood that compulsive use was a problem for a significant number of users, including minors. The presentation, according to court filings, acknowledged that the company had designed the product to maximize engagement and that this design contributed to compulsive use.
The lawsuits allege that in 2021, Facebook conducted research on how Instagram affected teens who reported suicidal thoughts. According to the complaints, the research found that 6 percent of American teen users who reported suicidal thoughts traced the issue to Instagram. The lawsuits allege that despite these findings, the company continued to operate Instagram without implementing meaningful safeguards for minors.
For TikTok, the allegations are similar. A lawsuit filed in 2022 alleges that internal communications show the company was aware that the average user session length was highly correlated with addictive use, and that the company set targets to increase session length, particularly among younger users. According to the complaint, TikTok designed its algorithm to learn user preferences quickly and to show increasingly tailored content that would keep users engaged for longer periods, even when the content was potentially harmful.
Court filings allege that TikTok was aware that its platform was being used to share content related to self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders, and that the algorithm was recommending such content to minors who showed interest in related topics. The lawsuits claim that despite knowledge of this problem, TikTok did not implement adequate content moderation or age verification systems.
For Snapchat, the allegations focus on design features that the lawsuits claim were intended to maximize engagement among minors. According to complaints filed in multiple states, Snapchat introduced features such as Snapstreaks, which encourage users to send messages to friends every single day to maintain a streak count. The lawsuits allege that this feature was designed to create a sense of obligation and anxiety about breaking the streak, leading to compulsive checking and use of the app. Court filings claim that Snapchat was aware that these features were particularly effective at increasing engagement among younger users, and that the company prioritized engagement metrics over user wellbeing.
In May 2023, the Surgeon General of the United States issued an advisory on social media and youth mental health, stating that there is evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people, particularly related to mental health. While this is not a court finding, it reflects a growing body of evidence that the lawsuits allege these companies had access to years earlier.
What The Lawsuits Say About Concealment
The complaints allege that the companies engaged in a coordinated effort to conceal the risks of their platforms from the public, from parents, and from regulators. These are allegations being litigated, not findings of fact unless otherwise noted.
According to court filings, Meta allegedly conducted extensive internal research on the harms of Instagram to teenage users but did not publish or widely share those findings. The lawsuits claim that when internal research found negative effects, the company did not act on the findings or communicate them to users. Instead, the complaints allege, Meta publicly stated that it was committed to teen safety while internally deprioritizing safety initiatives that might reduce engagement.
The lawsuits allege that the companies funded external research that was designed to produce favorable findings. According to the complaints, this research was sometimes conducted by academics who had financial relationships with the companies, and the companies allegedly retained control over whether and how the research was published. The lawsuits claim this created a body of industry-friendly research that obscured the true risks of social media use.
Court filings also allege that the companies lobbied against regulatory efforts to protect children online. According to the complaints, the companies opposed age verification requirements, restrictions on data collection from minors, and mandatory disclosures about the addictive nature of their products. The lawsuits claim that this lobbying was done while the companies had internal research showing that their platforms were causing harm to minors.
The allegations also include claims that the companies designed their platforms to be particularly difficult for parents to monitor or control. According to court filings, features such as disappearing messages on Snapchat and the ability to maintain multiple accounts on Instagram were designed in ways that made parental oversight more difficult. The lawsuits allege that these design choices were intentional and were made with knowledge that minors were using the platforms in ways that could be harmful.
Why Your Doctor May Not Have Told You
When your child was diagnosed with depression or an eating disorder, the doctor may have asked about screen time and social media use. But many doctors did not have access to the internal research that the lawsuits allege these companies possessed. The connection between social media use and mental health problems in adolescents has been studied in academic research, but the specific design features that the lawsuits allege were intentionally built to maximize addictive use were not widely known outside the companies.
Medical training has not fully caught up to the reality of how these platforms work. Many physicians were trained before smartphones and social media became ubiquitous in adolescent life. The idea that an app could be designed using the same psychological principles as a gambling product is not something that most doctors learned in medical school or residency.
There is also the problem of how risk information reaches doctors. Pharmaceutical companies are required to disclose risks and side effects. They must provide prescribing information, black box warnings, and post-market surveillance data. Social media companies have not been subject to the same requirements. According to the lawsuits, these companies knew their products could cause harm but were not required to disclose that information in a way that doctors, parents, or users could easily access.
The lawsuits allege that this informational gap was not accidental. Court filings claim that the companies had research showing harm but chose not to share it widely. The complaints allege that when researchers or advocates raised concerns, the companies responded with public statements emphasizing their commitment to safety without implementing meaningful changes to the products.
Many doctors also face the challenge that social media use is so widespread that it seems normal. When nearly every teenager is using these platforms for multiple hours per day, it can be difficult to identify the use as pathological. The lawsuits allege that this normalization was part of what allowed the harm to continue. By making compulsive use the default experience, the companies allegedly made it harder for parents, doctors, and even users themselves to recognize the problem.
Who Is Affected
The lawsuits are being filed on behalf of minors and young adults who used one or more of these platforms and who experienced mental health injuries as a result. If you are a parent or a young person trying to understand whether this applies to you, here is what the qualifying criteria generally look like.
You were a minor when you started using the platform. Most of the cases involve individuals who began using Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat before the age of 18, and many began in middle school or early high school. The lawsuits focus on minors because the allegations are that the companies specifically targeted young users and were aware that their developing brains were more susceptible to addictive design features.
You used the platform heavily. This usually means multiple hours per day, most days of the week, over a period of months or years. You may have found that you were unable to cut back even when you wanted to. You may have felt anxious or distressed when you could not access the app. You may have prioritized using the app over other activities like schoolwork, sleep, or spending time with family and friends.
You experienced a diagnosed mental health condition. This includes depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, and self-harm behaviors. The condition was diagnosed by a healthcare provider such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, or pediatrician. You may have been hospitalized or participated in intensive outpatient treatment. The diagnosis occurred during the period when you were actively using the platform, or shortly after.
There is a connection between your platform use and your mental health condition. This does not mean that the platform was the only factor in your mental health struggles. Many young people with social media-related injuries also have other risk factors such as family history of mental illness, trauma, or social difficulties. But the platform use was a significant contributing factor. Your symptoms may have worsened when you used the platform more, or improved when you used it less. Your treatment providers may have identified social media use as a concern.
The experience often looks like this: You started using Instagram when you were 12 or 13. At first it was fun. You posted pictures, followed your friends, liked their posts. But gradually you found yourself checking it more and more. You started comparing yourself to the influencers and celebrities you followed. You felt bad about your body, your face, your clothes, your life. You started restricting your eating. You lost weight. People commented that you looked good, and you took that as encouragement to lose more. By the time you were 14, you were diagnosed with anorexia. You were hospitalized. Even after treatment, you found it hard to stay off Instagram because all your friends were on it and you felt like you were missing out.
Or it looks like this: You downloaded TikTok when you were 14. You liked the funny videos. But the algorithm learned that you watched videos about mental health, about depression and anxiety. It started showing you more of those videos. Then it started showing you videos about self-harm. You had never thought about cutting before, but the videos made it seem like something that could help with the pain you were feeling. You started cutting. You posted about it. Other users encouraged you. The app became a place where your self-harm was normalized and even celebrated. You attempted suicide when you were 16. You survived, but the damage was done.
Or it looks like this: You used Snapchat constantly in high school. You had streaks with dozens of friends. You felt like you had to check the app every few hours or you would lose the streaks and let people down. You stopped sleeping well because you were on your phone late at night. You became anxious and irritable. Your grades dropped. You were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and major depression. You started medication and therapy, but you could not shake the feeling that you needed to be on the app.
Where Things Stand
As of 2024, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and other social media companies on behalf of minors and young adults who allege that the platforms caused mental health injuries. Many of these cases have been consolidated into multidistrict litigation in federal court, which allows for coordinated pretrial proceedings.
In October 2023, dozens of states filed lawsuits against Meta alleging that the company knowingly designed Instagram to be addictive to children and misled the public about the safety of its platform. These cases are proceeding in parallel with the individual lawsuits filed by families and young people.
The litigation is in relatively early stages. Discovery is ongoing, which means that attorneys are working to obtain internal documents and communications from the companies. The allegations in the lawsuits are based in part on documents that have already been disclosed, such as the Facebook Papers, and in part on information that attorneys expect to uncover through the discovery process.
There have not yet been trial verdicts in these cases, but the litigation is progressing. The companies have filed motions to dismiss, arguing that they are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides immunity to online platforms for content posted by users. However, the lawsuits argue that the claims are not about content but about the design of the platforms themselves, and that Section 230 does not apply. Courts are currently considering these arguments.
New cases are still being filed. If you believe that you or your child qualifies, there is still time to pursue a claim. These cases take time to develop, and the legal process can be lengthy, but families and young people are continuing to come forward.
The lawsuits are seeking to hold the companies accountable for the alleged harms and to force changes to the platforms to make them safer for young users. In addition to seeking compensation for individuals who were injured, the lawsuits are asking for injunctive relief, which would require the companies to change their design and business practices.
What happens in these cases will depend on what the evidence shows. The companies deny the allegations and argue that their platforms provide value to users and that they have implemented safety features to protect minors. The litigation will involve extensive fact-finding, expert testimony, and legal argument. The outcome is not predetermined, but the cases represent an effort to bring accountability to an industry that has operated with limited oversight.
The legal landscape is also changing at the state and federal level. Several states have passed or are considering laws that would regulate social media companies and require them to provide greater protections for minors. These legal changes reflect growing awareness of the issues that the lawsuits allege, and may result in additional avenues for accountability.
What you experienced was not a personal failing. It was not weakness or lack of willpower. The lawsuits allege that it was the result of deliberate choices made by some of the wealthiest and most sophisticated technology companies in the world, choices made with knowledge of the harm they would cause. You were a child. You were targeted by systems designed to exploit the vulnerabilities of the developing brain. You deserve to know what happened and why.
This is not about blame. It is about understanding. The research exists. The documents exist. The allegations have been filed. What comes next will be determined in courtrooms and legislative chambers, but the fact that this conversation is happening at all is because people like you came forward. Because parents refused to accept that their children were just fragile or difficult. Because young adults looked back at their adolescence and recognized that something had been done to them, not by them. That recognition is the beginning of accountability.