Meta sued over suicide of sextortion victim, 16

The parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after falling victim to a sextortion gang on Instagram are suing Meta for the alleged wrongful death, in the first UK case of its kind.

- Exclusive Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent

Murray Dowey died in December 2023 at his family home in Dunblane after being tricked into sending intimate pictures to an Instagram contact. He thought they were a girl his own age, but they turned out to be overseas criminals involved in financially motivated sexual extortion.

Speaking as the lawsuit was filed in Delaware, where Meta Platforms is incorporated, Murray’s parents, Ros and Mark, said: “We know what we're up against. But it’s time social media companies took accountability for what they’ve done to our young people.

“It’s not just sextortion, they’re causing multiple harms, and they’ve been allowed to get away with it.”

The lawsuit was filed in Delaware superior court by the US-based Social Media Victims Law Center on behalf of the Doweys, as well as the family of Levi Maciejewski, a 13-year-old from Pennsylvania who was also a victim of sextortion.

It states that the boys' deaths were "the foreseeable result of Meta's design decisions and repeated refusals to implement affordable, available and identified safety features due to Meta's prioritisation of engagement over user safety".