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Walker Montgomery was just 16 when someone pretending to be a teenage girl messaged him through Instagram and seduced him into cybersex.<\/p>\n
Within hours he was dead. Caught up in a sextortion scheme, the Mississippi teen killed himself. <\/p>\n
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EDITOR\u2019S NOTE \u2014 This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.<\/p>\n
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His father, Brian Montgomery, will never get over losing his son but he was among many parents celebrating this week as social media giant Meta lost two court cases where juries in different states ruled the platforms hook young users without concern for their well being.<\/p>\n
Montgomery sees it as a reckoning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about the most financially sound business that the planet has ever known. This will set an expectation,\u201d said Montgomery on Wednesday after juries in New Mexico and Los Angeles found social media providers failed to protect young users. <\/p>\n
And he isn’t alone. <\/p>\n
Other parents agree: There have been too few safeguards, and kids are suffering.<\/p>\n
The first blow came Tuesday<\/a> when jurors in New Mexico sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta \u2014 which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp \u2014 prioritized profits over safety and imposed a $375 million penalty.<\/p>\n Then on Wednesday, jurors in a separate case in Los Angeles found that Meta and Google-owned YouTube designed<\/a> their platforms to hook young users without concern for their well being. The companies issued statements vowing to explore their legal options, which includes appeals.<\/p>\n The verdicts illustrate a growing shift in the public\u2019s perception of social media companies and their responsibilities in keeping young people safe on their platforms.<\/p>\n For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children\u2019s mental health<\/a> through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. This year, several state and federal court cases are heading to trial, and while the details may vary, they all seek to hold companies responsible for what happens on their platforms.<\/p>\n Montgomery, not a plaintiff in either case, said the next step is legislation. \u201cThey\u2019ve proven,\u201d he said of the social media industry,\u201d that they can\u2019t regulate themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n He said his son \u2014 an athlete who loved the outdoors \u2014 went to bed happy before encountering a scammer from Nigeria.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t get to see him the next morning,\u201d the farmer and crop insurance salesman said, a picture of his son, taken during a duck hunting trip just months before his Dec. 1, 2022, death, displayed on his desk. <\/p>\n He is struck now by a mix of joy and sadness, knowing the change he sees coming is too late for his family. \u201cWalker\u2019s not coming back,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n In Dedham, Massachusetts, on the outskirts of Boston, Deb Schmill, understands all too well the messy mix of emotions the rulings bring. Her daughter, Becca Schmill, was 18 in September 2020 when she died of fentanyl poisoning from drugs she purchased through a social media platform. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the painful part of all of this,\u201d said Schmill, also not a plaintiff in the lawsuits. \u201cIf this could have been done five years ago, 10 years ago. Things would be so different.\u201d<\/p>\n Her daughter’s overdose happened after the teen was sexually assaulted by someone she met online and then became a victim of revenge porn. <\/p>\n \u201cShe was a wonderful child, but she was just tortured,\u201d said her mother. <\/p>\n