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The mother of an 11-year-old Enfield girl who committed suicide is suing the owners of Instagram and Snapchat, saying her daughter struggled for more than two years with an extreme addiction to the social media sites.The lawsuit filed by Tammy Rodriguez of Enfield in U.S. Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, names Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Instagram, and Snap Inc. owner of Shapchat. One of her lawyers, Matthew Bergman, represents the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle. “This isn’t a question of opinion. Internal documents and testimony before Congress by a former employee reveal that Meta Platforms was fully aware of the flaws and addictive properties of its social media platforms and failed to adequately design their products to protect minor users from harm,” Bergman said in a statement. “Similarly, no safeguards are in place on Snapchat.“Selena’s suicide is a direct result of the inaction and deliberate addictive design of these social media platforms to prey on vulnerable children. Meta Platforms and Snap must be held accountable for the role their products played in the loss of human life to prevent future suicides and self-harm to their other teen users.”The lawsuit says Selena…

Abhishek Pratap 6 hours ago News 6 Views The companies Meta and Snap are being sued by Tammy Rodriguez, mother of 11-year-old Selena Rodriguez. The woman claimed in the lawsuit that her daughter was addicted to Instagram and Snapchat platforms and they are to blame for the teenager’s suicide. The case took place in San Francisco, California (USA). The information is from the Bloomberg portal. © AFP/Archives Illustrative image AFP/Archives Tammy claimed in the lawsuit that, before her daughter committed suicide, she took the teenager to a therapist and he said “I’ve never seen a patient as addicted to social media as Selena.”The lawyer representing Tammy reported in the lawsuit that Instagram and Snapchat platforms are harmful to teenagers by exposing content in “excessive and dangerous ways”.The mother alleged that the two social networks committed negligence and violated California consumer protection laws.After being notified of the lawsuit, a spokesperson for Snap, which owns the Snapchat app, said the company regrets Selena’s death. She added that she works “in collaboration with numerous mental health organizations to provide tools and resources in the app to keep the community safe.”When questioned, the company Meta, owner of the Instagram application, preferred not to comment…

Warning: This story contains references to youth suicide The mother of an 11-year-old girl who died by suicide after being bullied online is suing social media giants Meta and Snap.The wrongful-death lawsuit alleges Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and Snap, parent company of Snapchat, the child’s death was a direct result of the platforms’ “inaction and deliberate addictive design”.Selena Rodriguez, of Enfield, Connecticut, died on 21 July last year after struggling with an “extreme addiction” to Instagram and Snapchat for two years, according to a statement from the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC), who filed the complaint in a US district court in California this week.Her addiction to social media worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic, the statement said, due to the “constant 24-hour stream of notifications and alerts”, causing her to experience severe sleep deprivation.Selena was “constantly solicited” for sexually exploitive content on the platforms, the statement said.After she succumbed to the pressure and sent sexually explicit images of herself to another person on Snapchat they were shared with her classmates, “increasing the ridicule and embarrassment she experienced at school”.“As a result, Selena was hospitalised for emergency psychiatric care and experienced worsening depression, poor self-esteem, eating disorders, self-harm, and…

A woman in Connecticut is suing Meta and Snap, alleging their platforms played a role in her 11-year-old's suicide. Tammy Rodriguez claims her daughter killed herself in July after "struggling with the harmful effects of social media." In a filing, Rodriguez said her daughter had an "extreme addiction" to Instagram and Snapchat for more than two years. Loading Something is loading. A Connecticut mother is suing Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, and Snap, alleging their "dangerous and defective social media products" played a role in her 11-year-old daughter's suicide.The complaint, filed by Tammy Rodriguez in San Francisco federal court earlier this week, claims Selena Rodriguez suffered from depression , sleep deprivation, eating disorders, and self-harm tied to her use of Instagram and Snapchat.According to the filing, Selena began using social media roughly two years before her death by suicide in July 2021, during which time she developed "an extreme addiction to Instagram and Snapchat." The filing also claims the 11-year-old missed school multiple times because of her social media use and that she was asked to send sexually explicit content by male users on both platforms.Rodriguez wrote in the filing that she attempted to get her daughter mental health…

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. Crisis Text Line can be reached by texting HOME to 741741 (US), 686868 (Canada), or 85258 (UK). Wikipedia maintains a list of crisis lines for people outside of those countries. A Connecticut mother has brought a lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, as well as Snap, claiming the platforms to cause the sort of addiction her late daughter suffered prior to taking her own life at age 11 last July.  Social media companies have been the target of various lawsuits over the years related to alleged harm to minors — oftentimes for failing to adequately prevent that harm, as in the case of teen who was bullied via an anonymous messaging app within Snapchat, leading to his eventual suicide. Tammy Rodriguez is instead making the case that the sort of "stickiness" these platforms are built to engender is inherently harmful, especially to young users like her late daughter Selena.  Selena "struggled for more than two years with an extreme addiction to Instagram and Snapchat," the suit notes, a claim apparently backed by an outpatient therapist who had "never seen a patient as addicted to social media" during their…

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Fla. (PRESS RELEASE) - A report to a Washington County Sheriff’s School Resource Officer of inappropriate/sexual photos exchanged lands a Minnesota man behind bars.On October 20, 2021 a report documented by a WCSO School Resource Officer stated that inappropriate/sexual photos had been exchanged between a 20-year-old male and a 14-year-old student using Snapchat. During the course of the investigation WCSO Investigators obtained a search warrant for the Snapchat accounts involved. It was discovered that the adult male was having the same types of conversations through this social media outlet, including sexual activity, with several underage females. Contact was made with the St. Paul Police Department, who holds jurisdiction where the male subject was residing. The male’s identity was confirmed, Phillip Jacob James. January 20th, detectives from the ST. Paul Police Department executed a search warrant on the residence of Phillip Jacob James which resulted in the arrest of James.St. Paul Police Department has charged James with solicitation of children to engage in sexual conduct and possession of pornographic work involving minors.The investigation is ongoing at this time. Additional charges are pending further investigation as there are other underage females involved from multiple states.Copyright 2022 WJHG. All rights reserved.

A Marietta man and Hempfield High School football coach and teacher has been charged with corruption of minors and harassment regarding an incident that took place on October 7, 2021. Thomas James Walker, 25, faces the first-degree and third-degree misdemeanors. On October 8, 2021, West Hempfield Township Police Department received a complaint from a 16-year-old female and her parent that a teacher from Hempfield sent her inappropriate messages indicating he was drunk and horny. These messages came through the social media platform SnapChat at about 10:30 p.m. from a username that police determined to be the defendant. The victim reported she received additional messages from the defendant asking how she was doing and inquiring about her appearance. Before the victim ended the communication, the victim said the defendant was questioning about why she wasn’t sending him an image of herself. Walker admitted to a Lancaster County Children and Youth Agency caseworker that he sent the messages but did so by mistake. Walker is presumed innocent. West Hempfield Township Police Department Detective George Brace filed charges. Assistant District Attorney Amy Muller approved charges. MEDIA CONTACT: Sean McBryan, semcbryan@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @SeanMcBryanLanc.

DETAILS ON THE CHARG.ES >> THOMAS WALKER OF MARIETTA IS CHARGED WITH CORRUPTION OF MINORS AND HARASSMENT. POLICE SAY WALKER ADMITTED TO SENDING THE MESSAGES BACINK OCTOBER, BUT SAID HE DID SO BY MISTAKE. A 16-YEAR-OLD GIRL TOLD POLICE THE MESSAGES CAME FROM WALRKE THROUGH SNAPCHAT AND INCLUDED AN IMAGE OF WALKER AND A SEPARATE MESSAGE ASKING WHY SHE WASN’T SENDING HIM AN IMAGE O Police: Former Hempfield high school teacher, football coach sent inappropriate messages to student A former high school teacher and football coach in the Hempfield School District in Lancaster County faces charges after police say he sent inappropriate social media messages to a student.Thomas Walker, 25, of Marietta, is charged with corruption of minors and harassment.According to police, Walker admitted to sending the messages in October but said he did it by mistake.A 16-year-old girl told police the messages came from Walker through Snapchat and included an image of Walker, as well as a separate message asking why she wasn't sending him an image of her.Walker was a teacher at the time. The district said he was immediately placed on administrative leave after it was notified of the allegations.He resigned in December. LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. —A…

One of the main challenges that social networks are having is how to manage the safety of their adolescent audience. Many companies have been in the eye of the hurricane for issues related to their few tools for the safety of young people. In that sense, Snapchat is implementing a measure to regulate the recommendations of friends that teenagers receive. The social network seeks to ensure that the recommendations for this sector are from people they know in real life. To do this, they have implemented a condition under which the new rule will work. This is the condition for Snapchat to send friend recommendations to teenagers The so-called “Quick Add List” is the tool that Snapchat uses for us to connect with people that we probably know or are interested in. However, exposing teen accounts in this area can be really dangerous for your security. In that sense, Snapchat has implemented a regulation in the recommendations of friends to the accounts of adolescents. This is done for the purpose of mitigating their exposure to people they do not know or are not part of close circles. In that sense, the social network will only send friend recommendations if the…

Snapchat's logo on a mobile phone. Angela Lang/CNET Snapchat is ramping up its efforts to combat illicit drug deals on its app. Parent company Snap on Tuesday shared an update about its latest efforts to stop the push of narcotics on the platform with a greater focus on teens. Among the changes, Snapchat is updating its Quick Add suggestion feature to reduce interactions between kids and strangers. "In order to be discoverable in Quick Add by someone else, users under 18 will need to have a certain number of friends in common with that person," the company said in a blog post. Previously, the app would recommend possible friends based on mutual connections, regardless of whether you know the person in real life. Get the CNET Mobile newsletter Find the best phones, apps and accessories with our CNET Mobile newsletter. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays. Additionally, the company is working on new parental tools that will roll out in the upcoming months, enabling parents to monitor some of their teens' communication habits. Last October, the app faced backlash following an NBC News report that examined the deaths of teens and young adults who were suspected of buying fentanyl-laced drugs through Snapchat. Fentanyl is a synthetic…