Fighting exploitation of minors on social media: A congressman from South Carolina sues Meta over his son's suicide after he was a victim of sextortion

Brandon Guffrey, who managed to pass a law last year to toughen penalties for this crime, accuses Zuckerberg's company of getting teenagers hooked and then leaving them unprotected against predators.

La activista Flora Rebello, junto a una imagen de Mark Zuckerberg de 4 metros y adolescentes 'víctimas' de Meta. — (Cordon Press)

Published by

Israel Duro

31 de enero, 2024

Topics:

Brandon Guffey has become the leader of parents' fight against child sexual abuse on social media. Following the suicide of his 17-year-old son after being a victim of sextortion on Instagram, Guffey has been going after those who make these types of crimes possible. After the Gavin Law (named after his son) was passed in South Carolina, increasing penalties for this crime, the Republican representative sued Meta for targeting children and teenagers and then leaving them unprotected in the hands of sexual predators.

"Did I tell you your son begged for his life?"

The document filed in court explains that in 2022, Gavin, who was 17 years old at the time, began chatting with a college student. The interactions escalated until, at her request, the two exchanged nude photos. Then everything changed. The girl turned out to be a predator who threatened to send his naked photos to family and friends if he didn't send money. Gavin sent what he had, but, according to the stalker, it was not enough. Desperate, Gavin committed suicide with his father's gun after locking himself in the bathroom.

The story doesn't end there. While the family was suffering the loss, the predator contacted Gavin's 16-year-old brother, 16, and a 14-year-old cousin on Instagram. He even demanded Guffrey send him money or he threatened to post the photos of his son, going so far as to mock him. Guffrey spoke to CNN and claimed that on the day Gavin would have turned 18 - less than a month after his death - he received a message that said: "Did I tell you your son begged for his life?" along with a laughing face emoji. The officers in charge of the investigation recommended that he not respond, which was not easy for him.

The extortionist sent disappearing messages

Guffey says that the extortionist took advantage of the app's disappearing messages so as not to leave noticeable traces for parents to find. This is common practice. These criminals convince minors that their privacy is protected before asking them to do more daring tasks when, in reality, they are left without evidence to report a possible crime.

Speaking to Fox News, the state congressman harshly charged Meta, accusing the company of "criminal negligence," hiding its investigations and "misleading the public":

I'm bringing the suit because of my personal experience of the pain of a father who lost a son. And I believe it's due to… criminal negligence. I believe that they designed addictive algorithms that target children. They've concealed research on the harmful effects, and they've misled the public, about the correlation between their products and our current mental health crisis across the globe.

"Deceptive practices"

In the lawsuit, Guffey claims that Meta "has created addictive and dangerous social media products marketed through deceptive practices" specifically targeting minors. The legislator accuses the company of prioritizing profits over people and accuses it of being "responsible for the unprecedented mental health crisis that the United States is currently suffering."

Defendants (Meta) deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue. Despite knowing the impact its products would have on America’s youth, Meta still chose to target them in pursuit of profit. For these reasons, Meta is responsible for the unprecedented mental health crisis in America today.

Meta hid reports that warned of the impact on young people

According to the South Carolina representative, one of the most serious points is that the technology company had reports that warned about the defects and addictions its platform could have on teenagers yet it chose to hide them:

Meta conducted extensive internal studies (previously concealed) establishing its knowledge of the defective and addictive products and the impacts these products would have on adolescents. Nevertheless, in order to capitalize on their platforms, Meta continued exploiting users by implementing defective algorithms – in foreseeably unsafe ways and in dereliction of their basic duties of care – targeting young people, inducing harmful, unhealthy, and compulsive use by kids.

The complaint warns of the harmful effects on minors

In addition, Guffey included in his lawsuit the harmful effects that the various Meta applications have on children. This includes depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia and eating disorders. In this specific case that ended with Gavin's death, lawyers point out that Mark Zuckerberg's company did not provide the tools that could have saved the teenager's life, such as age verification and effective parental controls.

42 attorneys general sued Meta in October

His complaint against Meta is added to the one that 42 state attorneys general - including that of South Carolina- filed against big tech last October. The states claimed that Meta was aware that its platforms were harmful to children and it continued to market them to young users to increase profits. Additionally, the technology company misled the public about the dangers related to the use of social media and knowingly collected data from users under 13 years of age.

"I'm fighting until the day of my death. This is my mission"

Guffey said that he will not give up in his fight to end these situations, which has become the "mission" of his life:

I'm fighting until the day of my death. This is my mission. They have a permanent opponent. I'll fight it on every front. I'll fight it through legislation on the state level. I'll fight it through going to conferences and getting other states to push this legislation. I'll fight it through the media as I'm screaming my message from the mountaintops, and I'll fight it in court. I'm not going away.