Social Media Addiction Lawyers
- Who Can File a Social Media Addiction Lawsuit?
- Why Hire Levin & Perconti to be Your Social Media Addiction Lawyer?
- The Legal Basis of Social Media Addiction Lawsuits
- What Does Social Media Addiction Look Like?
- FAQs About Social Media Addiction Harm Lawsuits
- Regulations and Legislation – Social Media Platforms
- Contact Levin & Perconti to Find Out if You Qualify for a Social Media Addiction Lawsuit
Addiction to social media is a growing concern among parents with children who use social networking sites. The phenomenon has reached a point where teenagers and young adults are suffering serious harm from the overuse of social media. Cyberbullying, the promotion of drug use, and sexual exploitation on these platforms can kickstart mental health conditions and reckless behavior in adolescents, resulting in various emotional and physical harms, including death.
Currently, there are around 594 pending lawsuits against various social media platforms in a large multi-district litigation case. These lawsuits allege that social media apps are designed to maximize screen time by encouraging addictive behavior that is harmful to adolescents. The suits allege that social media companies are allegedly exploiting children for financial gain.
The plaintiffs claim that the companies knew about these harms but failed to adequately warn parents or implement safety features to protect children.
Five major social media platforms and their parent companies are named as defendants in the MDL:
- Facebook and its parent, Meta Platforms Inc.
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- YouTube
If your child became addicted to social media before age 21 and has suffered physical harm like suicide, self-harm, or developing an eating disorder as a result, you may be entitled to sue these companies for compensation.
- Who Can File a Social Media Addiction Lawsuit?
- Why Hire Levin & Perconti to be Your Social Media Addiction Lawyer?
- The Legal Basis of Social Media Addiction Lawsuits
- What Does Social Media Addiction Look Like?
- FAQs About Social Media Addiction Harm Lawsuits
- Regulations and Legislation – Social Media Platforms
- Contact Levin & Perconti to Find Out if You Qualify for a Social Media Addiction Lawsuit
Who Can File a Social Media Addiction Lawsuit?
Adolescence is a critical period of brain development and growth in human beings, second only to early childhood. Because of that, social media can have a significant and lasting impact on the adolescent brain. Many parents of children harmed by social media, adults harmed by social media as children, and school districts financially damaged by students’ social media use have filed lawsuits against these companies. Additionally, the U.S. Surgeon General and 42 states have joined or publicly supported the litigation.
You may be eligible to file a social media addiction lawsuit if your child has used social media platforms and suffered physical, emotional, or psychological trauma, such as the following:
- Physical harm
- A mental health disorder requiring treatment
- The reduced quality of life
- Academic decline
If you’re unsure whether you’re eligible to file suit, contact Levin & Perconti for a free case review.
Why Hire Levin & Perconti to be Your Social Media Addiction Lawyer?
At Levin & Perconti, we understand the stress and emotional turmoil families face when filing a social media addiction lawsuit. Our attorneys are committed to going to bat against large corporations to vindicate the rights of people hurt by negligence—especially children.
Levin & Perconti attorney Mike Bonamarte believes social media is a major contributor to the youth mental health crisis. He’s invested in social media addiction litigation not just as a trial attorney but also as the father of a nine-year-old daughter.
“Frankly, it’s terrifying what’s happening,” Mike said in an interview with WVON. “A lot of it stems from parents feeling helpless or alone in their fight against these types of companies, and it’s really scary.”
Levin & Perconti is prepared to face social media giants in court. We’ve gone up against large entities and know what it takes to beat them. We’ve obtained multiple record-breaking settlements and trial verdicts. Some of our notable successful results include the following:
The Legal Basis of Social Media Addiction Lawsuits
The multidistrict litigation for social media addiction alleges that the social media platforms at issue are defective products. Though current laws—particularly Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act—prohibit lawsuits against social media companies for third-party content on their platforms, experts predict this will change in the coming years as pressure mounts for reform.
Steve Levin, founding partner at Levin & Perconti, believes that litigation lays the groundwork for liability. He maintains that lawsuits will pile up until Congress repeals Section 230 and allows social media companies to be sued, forcing them to make their platforms safer for children. Steve says a troubling level of legal immunity has been granted to social media companies under current law. Because social media changes so rapidly, these laws and regulations have quickly become obsolete.
“They are creating a forum where billions of people can say whatever they want, and that’s how they make their money,” Steve said in an interview with WVON. “If those people say things that harm other people, especially children, they should be held responsible. It’s called product liability–—the product itself is defective if it can’t be controlled by the people who are making money from it.”
Making social media safer is an uphill battle—but no other industry gets away with such disregard for safety. The courts have succeeded via mass tort litigation before in changing laws, particularly around tobacco and opioids. If your child has suffered harm from any social media platform, contact a lawyer so you understand your rights going forward.
What Does Social Media Addiction Look Like?
Social media addiction is a behavioral pattern marked by obsessive concern with social media. It is driven by an uncontrollable urge to use social media, causing the affected individual to devote so much time and effort to it that other important life areas become impaired. As many as 10 percent of Americans may meet the criteria for social media addiction. Research has shown that the overuse of social media can negatively affect adolescents’ school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships.
Psychological dependency on social media can form when someone views social networking sites as an important coping mechanism to relieve stress, loneliness, or depression. Social media interactions cause a dopamine rush, providing an endless amount of immediate awards in the form of attention from others for minimal effort. According to a 2022 study of university students in China, some major risk factors for social media addiction include impulsivity, low self-esteem, anxiety, social anxiety, and a tendency to pay attention to negative information. It also affects females more than males.
A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that teenagers who use social media for more than three hours a day may be at a heightened risk for mental health problems. A 2023 Familial and Adolescent Health Survey by Gallup found that more than half of U.S. teenagers spend at least four hours a day on social media, putting them at risk. Research has also found that nearly three-quarters of adolescents who use social media for more than five hours a day are twice as likely to show depressive symptoms and significantly more likely to commit suicide.
FAQs About Social Media Addiction Harm Lawsuits
What kind of compensation can you get if you join the social media addiction lawsuits?
Because the social media addiction multidistrict litigation is still in the early phases, it’s not yet known how much families could recover in compensation for their child’s suffering at the digital hands of social media. Meanwhile, the first trial in the social media addiction MDL is set for October 2025.
Is there a deadline to sue for social media addiction?
Each state has a statute of limitations that sets the deadline for filing a lawsuit. This statute of limitations generally varies from one to four years from state to state. Illinois’ personal injury statute of limitations is generally two years.
Can I sue someone for talking bad about me on social media?
This issue deals more with defamation, libel, and slander than social media addiction. Section 230 only protects social media companies from users’ content on their sites, not the users themselves. If someone has posted harmful content or information about you online that you can prove is false, you may be eligible to sue them.
How do social media algorithms perpetuate harm?
The current multidistrict litigation seeks to hold social media companies liable on strict liability and negligence theories based on the following allegations:
- Algorithms promoting compulsive use
- Never-ending feeds
- Lack of warnings when users are signing up
- Lack of methods to monitor and restrict length and frequency of use
- Barriers to voluntarily deleting and deactivating accounts
- Lack of meaningful age verification processes
- Lack of effective parental controls
- Lack of labels on filtered images and videos
- Intrusive notification timing designed to lure users back to the platforms
Do I need an attorney to represent me in a social media harm lawsuit?
Hiring an experienced attorney is your best bet at receiving compensation for the harm social media has caused your family. If you or a loved one has been harmed by social media addiction, contact Levin & Perconti today for a free consultation.
Regulations and Legislation - Social Media Platforms
Currently, social media companies have some immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The law, which was enacted one year before the inception of social media, shields social media providers from civil lawsuits over content posted by third parties on their sites. Section 230 also makes individual posters responsible for their own actions and statements online. When harmful speech occurs, the victim may be eligible to hold the speaker responsible but not the service hosting the speech.
However, this law blurs the lines between these companies being social platforms and “products.” Thus, you may not have legal recourse if a viral trend or challenge harms your child. A bipartisan group of lawmakers has called for tech companies to do more to protect children on social media platforms that countless studies have proven to be harmful.
Contact Levin & Perconti to Find Out if You Qualify for a Social Media Addiction Lawsuit
Since 1992, Levin & Perconti’s personal injury team has recovered more than two billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for our clients, including several record-breaking results.
If your family has been affected by social media addiction in adolescents, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit against the social media companies that perpetuated the harm. Contact our attorneys today by filling out our online contact form or calling 312-332-2872 for a free case review.
