The parents of a Scottish teenager who took his own life after being targeted by sextortion criminals on Instagram have launched a landmark legal case against Meta. Ros and Mark Dowey are suing the social media giant for the alleged wrongful death of their 16-year-old son, Murray, in what is believed to be the first lawsuit of its kind in the United Kingdom.
A Family's Fight for Justice
Murray Dowey died at the family home in Dunblane in December 2023. He had been tricked into sending intimate images to a contact on Instagram, believing he was communicating with a girl his own age. The contact was, in fact, part of an overseas criminal network engaged in financially motivated sexual extortion, commonly known as sextortion.
"We know what we're up against," said Ros and Mark Dowey, speaking as the lawsuit was filed in Delaware superior court, where Meta Platforms is incorporated. "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."
Allegations of Profit Over Safety
The lawsuit, filed by the US-based Social Media Victims Law Center on behalf of the Doweys and the family of a 13-year-old American victim, Levi Maciejewski, makes serious allegations against Meta. It claims the boys' deaths were a "foreseeable result" of the company's design choices and its refusal to implement known safety features, allegedly prioritising user engagement over safety.
The legal complaint outlines several key accusations:
- Collecting personal data without informed consent and using it to recommend teen users to predators Meta had already identified.
- Failing to safeguard privacy by sharing 'Follower' and 'Following' data, despite knowing this feature was linked to sextortion deaths globally.
- Making "false and misleading statements" about Instagram's safety for teens while internal testing reportedly showed the platform was "matchmaking children to adult predators".
Matthew Bergman, the Doweys' lawyer and founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, stated: "This complaint cites Meta records... those documents make the deliberateness of these design defects, lack of safeguards, and failures to warn clear."
A Growing Crisis and a Call for Change
This case marks the first UK lawsuit focusing on sextortion, a crime that has seen a sharp increase in recent years across the UK, US, and Australia. Teenage boys and young men are typically targeted by cybercriminal gangs often based in regions like south-east Asia and west Africa. Earlier this year, reports indicated criminals were beginning to target children as young as 11 to 13.
Mark Dowey reflected: "Nothing's really changed since Murray died. These predators can still get at our children." Alongside their legal battle, the couple have campaigned to raise awareness about sextortion dangers. Ros Dowey added: "As a parent who has first-hand experience of how devastating the flaws can be, you have a duty to warn other parents."
For the Doweys, the lawsuit is "a way to get a wee bit of justice for Murray." Mark Dowey asserted: "[Meta] have known that their products are killing children by their unsafe design and they haven't done anything about it. They chose to put profit before our young people."
In October 2024, Instagram, which has called sextortion "horrific", rolled out new safety features, including blocking screenshots of disappearing images, specifically to protect young users from scammers. A Meta safety executive acknowledged the "adversarial" nature of the crime, stating scammers constantly try to circumvent protections.
Meta has been approached for comment regarding this lawsuit.
If you are affected by the issues in this article, support is available. In the UK, contact Papyrus on 0800 068 4141 or the Samaritans on 116 123.
