Mother sues Meta, Snap for 11-year-old daughter’s suicide

Washington: A woman has filed lawsuit against Instagram's parent company Meta and Snap Inc as an addiction to their social media platforms caused the suicide of her 11-year-old daughter.

Selena Rodriguez, an 11-year-old resident of Enfield, Connecticut, co last July.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in a federal courtroom in California on Friday, Tammy Rodriguez alleged that the death of her daughter was caused after she became addicted to "dangerous and defective social media products."

According to a statement from the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), which filed the suit in California on behalf of Selena's mother, the young girl suffered from an "extreme" addiction to Instagram and Snapchat, reports BBC.

They said, "On multiple occasions, Selena received mental health treatment for her addiction. One outpatient therapist who evaluated Selena remarked that she had never seen a patient as addicted to social media."

The girl suffered from sleep deprivation and depression for months, particularly since the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit accused both social media giants of "knowingly and purposefully" designing and marketing products that were harmful to a "significant" number of their underage users, reports BBC. (UNI)