Englyn Roberts: Parents of California teen, 14, sue Meta as she ends her life after copying Instagram video
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If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: The parents of a 14-year-old girl are suing social media giant Meta after she ended her life by suicide after watching a video showing a "pretend hanging" on Instagram. On August 2020, Englyn Roberts' parents found their daughter in her bedroom after she tried to recreate the video. The young girl was rushed to a hospital but was pronounced dead after a few days.
Roberts parents, Toney and Brandy, later discovered that her friend has sent her a video on Instagram of a woman "pretending to hang herself." It was only after a whistleblower revealed Meta's sensitive and harmful content that was specifically targeting young girls, promoting self-harm and anorexia, in 2021, that Toney started to understand what had happened. Since then scores of lawsuits have been filed against the tech giant claiming it was aware of the said harmful content but failed to put an end to it despite strict policies, as per Daily Mail.
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Toney and Brandy received a text from a parent of one of Roberts' friends, who suggested they check on her. "We went upstairs and we checked, and her door was locked," Toney told 60 Minutes, adding, "That was odd, so I took the key from the top and we opened the door, and no Englyn. And when I turned, that's when I found her." He said that what he saw left him in disbelief. Her parents reportedly blamed themselves for not knowing about their daughter's struggles.
Roberts was secretly posting online about her struggles with self-worth, relationships and mental health. She even started posting content about self-harm, including the aforementioned video, a lawsuit filed in San Francisco read. Toney claimed he only fully understood what had happened to his daughter after former Facebook employee Frances Haugen released internal documents claiming the tech company was largely aware of its negative social and mental impact, while also encouraging eating disorders specifically in young girls.
As per Daily Mail, a message posted on an internal message board in the company in March 2020 said that the app revealed that 32% of girls said Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies if they were already having insecurities. Toney said, "You ask yourself, how did she come up with this idea? And then when I did the research, there it was. She saw it on Instagram. It was on her phone."
"If they so-call monitor and do things how could it stay on that site? Part of their policies says they don't allow for self-harm photos, videos, things of that nature. So who's holding them accountable?" Toney said.