- Two new lawsuits allege that Meta-owned Instagram played a role in teenagers' eating disorders.
- This follows a string of lawsuits that allege that Meta is aware of the harm it does to young users.
Two more families in the US are alleging in lawsuits that Instagram has played a role in fueling their teenage daughters' eating disorders.
The lawsuits, which were both filed in San Francisco, are two in a string of legal complaints filed against Instagram-owner Meta recently that allege that the company operates Instagram in a harmful way despite knowing the dangers that its product causes to teens and children.
One of the lawsuits, filed on behalf of a family in Kentucky, alleges that Meta created a "'perfect storm' of addiction, social comparison, and exposure to incredibly harmful content and product features" and resulted in teenage user Alex suffering "several emotional, physical, and financial harms as a result..."
The other lawsuit alleges that Meta's "unreasonably dangerous Instagram product" caused long-term mental and physical harm to one teenage girl, which will "forever impact" her life.
Both lawsuits allege that the teenage users joined Instagram at 12 years old, despite the company's policy requiring users to be 13 or older.
Instagram-owner Meta could not be immediately reached for comment.
The lawsuits follow a whistleblower allegation last year from a former Facebook employee (now Meta) that the company knew that Instagram could make eating disorders and thoughts of suicide worse in teenage girls.
Although Instagram has said they do not allow users to post glorifying images of eating disorders, psychiatrists have raised alarm bells about Instagram's harmful effects in the past few years.