Parents who lost children to social media harms question Meta settlement

Published On 27 Aug 202627 Aug 2026.

Key points

• She attended US Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in February 2024 when Meta's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, testified.
• When parents held it up outside the Los Angeles court, popolo remarked the number of children on their banner has gone up from 356 in March.
• In late 2023, a researcher from her foundation set up accounts on Instagram as a 14-year-old and connected with drug dealers.
• Lori Schott, a resident of Colorado, remarked she lost her 18-year-old daughter, Annalee, to suicide.
• Schmill additionally assisted fund a study by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health that indicated social media businesses created $11bn in US advertising revenues from minors.

Oakland, California, the US – During the COVID-19 pandemic, Erin Popolo's then-16-year-old daughter Emily took a job at a cafe near her home in Bridgewater, New Jersey, making pizza. Emily had always battled mental health problems, but when some classmates posted photos of her with an apron and hairnet on social media and began cyberbullying her, it secured worse.

Emily had joined Facebook and Instagram just before the pandemic and stayed on since "she wanted to have friends, be in a group", things she struggled with otherwise, Popolo stated. She had applied the report button to take down the negative comments against her daughter, but to no avail. Emily died by suicide a few months afterwards, at 17.

Last week, Popolo joined a group of parents outside a United States federal court in Oakland. Hearings had begun in a case in which 29 US states sued Meta, the parent firm of Facebook and Instagram, for design flaws in its products that the plaintiffs stated led to children becoming addicted and allowed them to be contacted by drug dealers, cyberbullied, extorted and abused.

Meanwhile, the high-stakes case sought up to $200bn in fines as well as changes to Meta's products and business practices.

On Wednesday, Meta settled the case for $18bn and agreed to growth protections for young users.

While the settlement has been hailed as historic, Popolo asked: "What evidence did they not want to get out?"

Meanwhile, the trial had began on August 18 and was anticipated to last six weeks.

Mary Rodee, whose 15-year-old son died by suicide after becoming the target of online extortion, remarked the measures unveiled on Wednesday would not have protected him.

"We were robbed of seeing the evidence" since of the settlement, she informed Al Jazeera.

"Our kids need to be protected from your algorithms and ads, " she remarked concerning Meta, pointing out that the settlement does not restrict advertising to minors or create algorithms transparent.

She remarked she hopes there will be more cases against Meta. She wants to see convictions and rose transparency in their processes.

For context, the states' case had included internal documents showing that Meta's top executives knew of the security loopholes in their platforms.

As well as a quiet mode for notifications, in his testimony on Tuesday, Instagram's chief executive Adam Mosseri remarked that Instagram had went on a pop-up feature to all teen accounts in 2024, asking them to take a break from scrolling.

Jason Slothouber, from the Colorado attorney general's office, asked if Mosseri was aware that parents had no way of knowing that only 1 percent to 2 percent of children applied this feature. Mosseri confirmed they did not. He was scheduled to testify again on Wednesday, but then the settlement was reached.

Annalee had received a constant stream of messages, Schott remarked, that had produced her feel she was not beautiful enough.

As well as in Los Angeles, where Meta was previously sued in March, stated Instagram needs to introduce more stringent measures to protect teens, schott, who had additionally been outside court on the first day of the trial.

"I would like to see less addictive design, including limits on infinite scroll, autoplay streaks, constant notifications, and algorithmic feeds, " she remarked of features that form the bedrock of Instagram's model. "It keeps kids online."

"I would like to see more control over the algorithms, including their ability to turn off personalised recommendations or use the chronological feeds that were pushing content to my daughter, like dealing with suicide and eating disorders."

In chronological feeds, the latest content is continued on top, and critics say this keeps users hooked as they keep coming back to the app to see if something new has come.

As well as night-time and school-time blocks, as part of the settlement, Meta has agreed to some changes, including setting two-hour time limits for users under 18.

On the first day of the trial in Oakland, California, Popolo, Schott and other parents held a banner with the names of the 398 children who they say had died since of social media addiction and bullying.

When parents held it up outside the Los Angeles court, popolo remarked the number of children on their banner has gone up from 356 in March. In that case, Meta was handed a $4.2m fine. 'Handed them a tool, magnified bullying'.

Apart from cyberbullies, parents spoke of drug dealers and overseas extortion gangs contacting their children through fake accounts and selling them fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, or extorting them for funds after getting them in embarrassing situations.

In upstate New York, Mary Rodee and Darren Basford's 15-year-old son Riley had always wanted a snowmobile, and had turned to Facebook Messenger in March 2021 to look for one.

Once there, he began receiving messages from someone he thought was a teenage girl. They exchanged private photos, after which the girl. This person was actually a group of men from the Ivory Coast, began threatening to send the pictures to his parents and share them widely if he did not pay them $3, 500.

While he obtained his braces fixed with his mother and secured a milkshake, riley asked for time, but the threats escalated throughout the next day. She dropped him off at his father's house to spend the night.

In the early hours of the morning, Basford discovered Riley dead. He had died by suicide, Basford remarked, rather than facing the shame of his private photos being shared with family and friends.

Riley's mother, Mary Rodee, stood outside the court in Oakland on the first day of the trial, just as she had in Los Angeles, and had hoped to see Meta held to account. There are dangers beyond extortion, including straightforward contact with drug dealers.

Deb Schmill's 15-year-old daughter Becca was raped by a boy she met on a chat group and then cyberbullied. The bullies "knew she was vulnerable at the time", Schmill informed Al Jazeera.

"Kids have always looked for vulnerabilities in others to bully them, " she continued. "With unfettered social media, we have handed them a tool and magnified bullying."

In 2020, Schmill had not known that she could report the abuse and try to take it down.

Becca battled growing mental health problems from the rape and bullying and tried to purchase cocaine online to accord with her pain. She concluded up buying fentanyl that a drug dealer sold her in the guise of cocaine. At 18, Becca died of an overdose.

"Becca was the love of my life. We were always holding hands, " Schmill remarked.

She attended US Senate Judiciary Committee hearings in February 2024 when Meta's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, testified. She held up Becca's photo as Zuckerberg turned to her and other mothers who had lost children and apologised.

Schmill, who now runs a foundation in Becca's name, remarked drug dealers and extortionists would not have straightforward access to their children if Meta's safety protocols worked.

In late 2023, a researcher from her foundation set up accounts on Instagram as a 14-year-old and connected with drug dealers. When they discovered the dealers' accounts, the researchers noted them to Instagram. More than 95 percent of the accounts documented were not taken down, Schmill informed Al Jazeera.

Her foundation did not publish the research, and will employ it as part of a lawsuit.

For now, parents who lost children to social media harms question Meta settlement remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.