The mom from Colorado has decided to file a lawsuit against Facebook and its parent company, Meta. Due to allegations that her daughter became addicted to social media and developed an eating issue as a result.
The mother, Cecilia Tesch from Pueblo, Colorado, claimed that her daughter, known only as RF in court documents, became dependent on Meta’s social networking platforms at the age of seven and that her concentration on the platforms drove her to develop a potential fatal eating disorder. She thinks that social media damaged the life of her daughter.
The lawsuit alleges that RF’s addiction to the social media platform caused her to have “sleep deprivation, bodily dysmorphia, an eating disorder, self-harm, extreme anxiety, and depression,” according to a report.
The worried mother also claimed that Facebook and other social media notifications would keep her daughter up all night because the platform would deliver the dings and beeps at all hours of the night. Tesch also claimed that her daughter, now thirteen, has resorted to self-harm because of her “addictive and problematic use of the (social media) platform.”
In believing that social media has interfered with her daughter’s interest in other hobbies and that the “continuous notifications” that were rolling in through the app affected her sleep as well. Tesch has filed a controversial lawsuit with the United States District Court in Denver.
It is unclear what Tesch did or did not do to stop her daughter from using social media, or if the Colorado mother made any rules about her daughter’s online behavior. Even though Facebook has long stated that users must be thirteen years old or older. But RF opened an account and began using social media when she was only seven years old.
Tesch and her daughter claim to have been unaware “of the clinically addicting and mental harmful effects of Facebook,” the lawsuit also claims that teens and young children are at high risk of developing an addiction to Facebook and other social media platforms.
Punitive damages, which are not specifically outlined in the case, are sought. Additionally, the complaint demands that the defendant pay back the daughter’s medical bills that she incurred as a result of her social media addiction.
Including the social media platform’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and COO Sheryl Sandberg, the lawsuit also names several other defendants.
Sources: AWM, DailyMail, BusinessInsider