What are social media harm lawsuits?

Social media harm lawsuits are personal injury claims brought by families who allege that social media platforms contributed serious harm to a loved one’s mental health — particularly minors. The claims focus on how the platforms themselves were built. The complaints allege that companies designed their products to keep young users engaged for as long as possible, despite what the companies understood about the risks to children and teens.

These are not fringe theories. Families across the country have brought these claims, courts have allowed the core allegations to be heard, and the legal landscape around them continues to develop. What matters for your family isn’t the procedural status of any particular case; it’s whether your child’s experience fits the pattern these claims address: heavy platform use, followed by real, documented harm.

That’s a question a social media harm lawyer at Shaheen & Gordon can evaluate directly. The claims are individual, built on your child’s use history and medical records, and they can be pursued regardless of where the broader litigation stands on any given day.

Related reading: Do personal injury cases go to trial?

How does social media harm people?

Research has linked heavy social media use among children and teens to a range of mental health problems. The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on social media and youth mental health reported that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of poor mental health outcomes, including symptoms of depression and anxiety. 

Teens themselves are increasingly wary: in Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, 48% of teens said social media has a mostly negative effect on people their age, up from 32% in 2022, and 45% said they spend too much time on these platforms.

Families pursuing claims describe harms that include:

• Depression and anxiety disorders
• Eating disorders and body image issues
• Self-harm and suicidal ideation
• Sleep disorders and chronic fatigue
• Social withdrawal, falling grades, and lost motivation

These conditions carry real costs: therapy and treatment, hospitalization in serious cases, academic disruption, and years of family strain. Documenting those effects, medically and financially, is much of what turns an experience into a provable claim.

What do social media harm lawsuits allege?

A common allegation is that social media platforms were engineered to maximize young users’ time and attention despite known risks. These types of complaints describe engagement-driven features, including infinite scrolling, autoplay, streaks, push notifications, and algorithmic feeds tuned to each user, as design choices that allegedly fostered social media addiction in children and teens. 

Plaintiffs also allege that the companies’ own internal research connected heavy use to anxiety, depression, body image harm, and eating disorders among young users, and that the platforms failed to warn families or add meaningful protections. Families aren’t alone in saying so: attorneys general from dozens of states have made similar allegations in their own suits over addictive design and harm to young users.

The companies dispute these allegations, and each family’s claim ultimately rises or falls on its own evidence. That’s why holding social media companies responsible starts with your child’s specific story: the use history and the medical records that connect it to the harm.

Do I have a social media harm case?

A strong social media harm claim tends to share a few features, and a case review looks for each one:

• Regular use over time. Your child or teen used one or more social media platforms consistently, over months or years, in many cases beginning as a minor.
• A documented mental health change. New or worsening depression, anxiety, disordered eating, self-harm, or sleep problems emerged during or after that period of heavy use.
• A professional diagnosis. A doctor or mental health professional diagnosed a condition such as depression, anxiety, or an eating disorder. Treatment records are among the strongest evidence a claim can have.
• Lasting effects. The harm reached into daily life, including school, health, relationships, or hospitalization.

If that pattern sounds familiar, it costs nothing to find out where you stand. A confidential, free case review is how the question gets answered. If you decide to file a social media lawsuit, deadlines apply, so the review is worth doing sooner rather than later.

Who can file a social media lawsuit?

A personal injury claim belongs to the person who was harmed. When that person is a minor, a parent or legal guardian files and manages the claim on the child’s behalf. When the injured person is an adult, the claim is their own, even if the harm began years earlier. Whether a parent has any separate claim of their own depends on state law, and that’s a question for the attorney reviewing your family’s situation, not one a page can answer.

Can adults file a social media harm claim?

No rule limits these claims to minors as a category. The complaints center on how platform design affects young users, and the harm they describe begins in childhood and adolescence, so that’s where the litigation has focused.

An adult’s potential claim turns on specific, checkable facts rather than age alone: when the use began, when symptoms appeared and were diagnosed, what the medical records show, and the filing deadline that applies in that state. A free case review answers them for your specific situation.

Filing deadlines vary by state

Every state sets its own filing deadline, and special rules can extend deadlines for people injured as minors. Which rules apply to your family depends on where you live and when the harm was diagnosed, and that’s a question to resolve with an attorney rather than assume in either direction.

Talk with a social media harm lawyer about your family’s options

Shaheen & Gordon has represented individuals against large corporate defendants since 1981, from offices across New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Hawaii, and we can evaluate social media harm claims for families nationwide. If heavy social media use was followed by depression, an eating disorder, or another serious mental health condition in your child or teen, request a free consultation. Call (800) 451-1002 or contact us online, and we’ll review what happened and what your family can do about it.

Frequently asked questions about social media harm claims

Can social media companies actually be sued?

Yes. The platforms have argued that federal law shields them from these claims, and courts have allowed key design-based claims to move forward anyway. These cases are being heard, which is why having your family’s potential claim evaluated is worth doing.

Which platforms are involved?

Claims have focused on the major social media platforms: Instagram and Facebook (owned by Meta Platforms), TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. Claims involving one or several platforms can qualify, since many people use more than one.

What is social media addiction?

Social media addiction describes compulsive platform use that interferes with daily life, sleep, school, and mental health. It isn’t a formal diagnosis on its own, but the underlying conditions that accompany it, including depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, are diagnosable, and those diagnoses anchor these claims.

Do I need a formal diagnosis to have a case?

A diagnosis from a doctor or mental health professional substantially strengthens a claim, because it documents the harm and ties it to a timeline. If your child is struggling but hasn’t been evaluated, getting care comes first. The medical record it creates serves the claim as a byproduct of doing right by your child.

Is there a deadline to file a social media lawsuit?

Yes, and it varies by state. Statutes of limitation can be extended for those who were minors when the harm occurred, but the safest course is to have the deadline calculated for your specific situation now, because waiting can quietly close the door on an otherwise strong claim. Understanding how settlement offers work in injury cases, including global settlement offers, also takes time that’s better spent before a deadline than after.

How can Shaheen & Gordon help?

We evaluate your family’s potential claim, gather the use history and medical records that support it, and file and manage the case while you focus on your child. When you hire a social media harm lawyer, you’re hiring both an advocate for your child’s individual story and a team built for litigation against large corporate defendants. We handle the process; your family’s job is to focus on your family. Call (800) 451-1002 to learn more about your options.