Memphis Attorney for Social Media and Child Abuse
Our Memphis social media and child abuse lawsuit is underway. We are accepting new clients, and we wanted to offer you some information about what these cases involve and why we feel so strongly about this.
(In addition to social media leading to child abuse and exploitation, we’re also taking on these companies for their connection to other extremely serious problems in children and teens:
If your child has been impacted by any of these issues, we’re so sorry. We’re happy to speak with you about your options.)
Grooming and Sexual Assault of Girls and Teens on Social Media
Children and teens use social media every single day. In fact, some very young children have managed to get accounts and use the platforms against the sites’ own rules.
And yet, these apps often don’t have safety measures in place to prevent online grooming and exploitation. For example, when members of Congress set up fake accounts as a young girl, they quickly received private messages from strangers interested in sexual encounters.
Children simply do not know or understand these risks. They don’t know how to protect themselves or even what to protect themselves from. And all the while, predators can write them privately, comment on their posts, and even spread their photos and videos all over the internet.
This creates a culture of grooming and abuse that can put children at serious risk. Through these private messages, abusers have been able to convince children to meet them. And in some cases, they’ve been caught crossing state lines.
Social media companies have had decades to address the problem. And yet even with very young children on their platforms, they continue to allow private messaging and grooming.
How the Platforms Avoid Oversight from Parents
Even with these extreme risks, the social media platforms have made it easy to avoid parental control. On these sites, children and teens can access videos about how to create secret accounts. (Facebook privately called these secret accounts “a unique value proposition.”)
They can also sign up for accounts meant to be 13+ without verifying their age.
And on top of all of that, the sites are extremely addictive. So even with all their dangers and the way they can hurt mental health, kids don’t feel able to quit.
Parents are desperate. When asked what to do about their children’s unlimited and unsafe social media use, the platforms tell them to “take the phone away.”
That’s not good enough. Children need their phones for a variety of reasons and can easily access these apps other ways.
Instead of blaming the parents, these companies need to take responsibility for the way they’ve put young people at risk.
Social Media Companies Refuse to Answer Regulators
In hearing after hearing, social media executives from Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and more have refused to answer basic questions about child safety, abuse, and human trafficking.
For example, consider this 2021 exchange between Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Antigone Davis, Facebook’s Global Safety Director:
Sen. Blackburn: I want to…talk about the presence of content on Facebook and Instagram that is used to recruit women into domestic servitude. Their passports are often taken away from them. They can be auctioned online and abused. I’ve seen information suggesting that Facebook knew this content was on its website but did nothing to delete it until Apple threatened to drop Facebook from the Apple App Store.
Antigone Davis: Respectfully, Senator, I don’t agree with that characterization of what occurred. In fact, we have policies against sex trafficking–
Sen Blackburn: This is your reporting. Ms. Davis, this is your company’s reporting. You knew this was there. But you didn’t do anything about it. Is it still there? Is this something that girls as young as 8 that are on your site are exposed to?
As you can glean from that line of questioning, Facebook and the other social media sites haven’t shown appropriate care in protecting users on their sites. Instead, when asked by regulators to defend themselves, they’ve focused on their written policies—not on the way their platform actually functions.
How to Get Involved with Our Memphis Social Media and Child Abuse Lawsuit
If your child has been abused or exploited because of social media, you deserve justice. These companies violated your trust and made your child vulnerable. And when told about the issue, they refused to do anything about it.
We’re speaking with families of children 23 and younger who have been physically injured by social media—including child abuse, trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
If that’s you or your child, you may be entitled to compensation.
To get started, just give us a call at 901-327-2100 or fill out the form below.
Our attorneys will discuss your situation, answer your questions, and give you an idea of what to expect. We work with families in delicate situations all the time, and we’ve taken on some of the biggest companies in the world. As a result, you can trust we’ll treat you and your loved ones with compassion and respect, all while fighting against these digital Goliaths with everything we’ve got.
The abuse ends here.
We look forward to speaking with you.
Social Media Case Inquiry
I would like to find out more about the social media lawsuit and see if I have a case.