Is social media to blame for Aubreigh Wyatt’s death? What MS Coast mom’s lawsuit says
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Aubreigh Wyatt’s mother, former Ocean Springs elementary teacher Heather Wyatt, claims in a lawsuit that an obsession with social media led to her 13-year-old daughter’s September death by suicide.
Young Aubreigh was addicted to the online platforms, as they intended, the lawsuit says. She felt compelled to check in on the social media platforms and was incessantly pinged with notifications from her accounts, including TikTok, Snapchat and, to a lesser degree, Facebook and Instagram.
Sophisticated algorithms the online platforms use fed Aubreigh a steady diet of content tailored to her interests. As a result, the lawsuit said, “Aubreigh subsequently developed injuries including, but not limited to, social media compulsion, lack of focus, self-harm, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations, body dysmorphia, a reduced inclination or ability to sleep, other harmful effects, and, ultimately, death by suicide,” the lawsuit says.
Gulfport attorney Trevor Rockstadt of Davis & Crump filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in Los Angeles County, California, the state where the companies are headquartered. Wyatt’s case joins hundreds of others referred to in legal circles as the “social media youth addiction lawsuits.” The cases have been consolidated under Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl.
Hundreds suing TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Kuhl summarized the lawsuits in a recent ruling, saying they accuse the social media platforms of using “manipulative features” that maximize the time young people spend on the platforms, in turn maximizing the revenue those companies collect from advertisers.
Like hundreds of other litigants, Wyatt is suing Meta Platforms Inc., its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram; Snap Inc. and its social media platform Snapchat; ByteDance and its video-sharing application TikTok; and Google and its video-sharing platform YouTube.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of causing Aubreigh Wyatt’s wrongful death, gross negligence, unjust enrichment, violation of consumer protection laws, negligent infliction of emotional distress and other wrongs.
The companies have denied any wrongdoing, with several pointing to parental controls on their platforms and saying they work to protect children, according to a report from global news agency Reuters.
Wyatt’s lawsuit singles out Meta, accusing the company of fraud, fraudulent concealment and conspiracy to commit fraud. Facebook and Instagram convinced parents and their children, including the Wyatts, that their platforms were safe, the Wyatt lawsuit and others say. If she had known how harmful the social media platforms were, Heather Wyatt would never have let her daughter use them, the lawsuit says.
The platforms can be particularly harmful to girls, the lawsuits say, presenting unrealistic beauty and body-image standards. Among the many harmful aspects of social media enumerated for young users, the lawsuit lists bullying and conflict. In a previous interview with Heather Wyatt in her attorney’s office, she told the Sun Herald Aubreigh was cyberbullied.
Meta’s own research, the lawsuit says, confirmed how harmful its social media platforms could be for teens. The lawsuit says, “Meta has silenced and suppressed information, research efforts, and public awareness efforts regarding the harmful heath impact of their platforms.”
Meta’s efforts to suppress the harmful effects of Facebook and Instagram, the lawsuit says, are similar to those tobacco companies once used to say cigarettes were not harmful.
Social media addiction sickens young people, lawsuits say
The lawsuit contains very little personal information about Aubreigh’s mental health struggles, instead relying on studies and information also cited in other lawsuits about the negative impacts social media has on young people.
The issues cited include “social media addiction, depression, body dysmorphia, anxiety, suicidal ideation, self-harm, thoughts of self-harm, insomnia, eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, death by suicide, death by eating disorder, lack of focus, ADHD, difficulty sleeping, fatigue, headaches, migraines, loss of vision, eye strain, among other harmful effects . . .”
The lawsuits often quote material about the potential harm of social media platforms, including information published by the National Institutes of Health.
While the Wyatt lawsuit details how social media addicted and depressed Aubreigh Wyatt, her mom has been using social media to advocate for mental-health treatment and educate others about bullying, including cyberbullying. She has previously said that Aubreigh was bullied from fifth grade up until her death by suicide as an eigth-grader at Ocean Springs Middle School.
More and more parents, and even governments, are seeking recourse in the courts against social media platforms over what they claim are harmful psychological and physical impacts on young people.
Forty two state attorneys general are suing Meta over what they say are Facebook and Instagram’s efforts to capture the attention of impressionable young minds with addictive content. Mississippi has not signed onto the case.
