DUNBLANE, Scotland: The parents of a 16-year-old Scottish boy who died by suicide after falling victim to an Instagram sextortion scam have filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against Meta, the social media giant that owns Instagram, alleging the company’s design choices and safety failures contributed to their son’s death.
Mark and Ros Dowey say their son, Murray Dowey, was tricked in December 2023 into sharing intimate images with scammers posing as a peer. The images were then used to extort him, and Murray took his own life just hours after the interaction. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court by the Social Media Victims Law Center, also includes a similar case involving a U.S. teenager.
The complaint contends Meta knew Instagram exposed children to predators but “prioritized engagement and profit” over implementing safety features that could have prevented such exploitation. According to the filings, internal discussions dating back years pointed to risks to minors that were not adequately addressed.
Ros Dowey told the BBC the family is determined to hold the company to account. “We just feel that it is time that Meta were held accountable for what they've done to a lot of young people,” she said, arguing that the platform’s design made it “easy” for predators to find and target teens.
Meta has previously described sextortion as a “horrific crime” and highlighted measures such as default private accounts for users under 16 and new protections against suspicious accounts, but the Doweys’ legal team says these changes are too late and insufficient.
The case marks one of the first wrongful-death lawsuits of its kind in the UK tied to social media sextortion, spotlighting broader concerns about child safety online.