The parents of a Scottish teenager who died by suicide after being targeted by an online sextortion gang have launched a landmark lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram. This is believed to be the first case of its kind in the United Kingdom.
A Family's Fight for Justice
Murray Dowey, a 16-year-old from Dunblane, died in December 2023. He had been tricked into sending intimate images on Instagram to someone he believed was a girl his own age. The contact was, in fact, part of an overseas criminal network engaged in financially motivated sexual extortion, known as sextortion.
His parents, Ros and Mark Dowey, are now pursuing legal action, filed in Delaware Superior Court where Meta is incorporated. They are being represented by the US-based Social Media Victims Law Center. The lawsuit accuses Meta of "putting profit before our young people" and alleges the company's design choices directly contributed to their son's death.
"We know what we're up against," said Ros and Mark Dowey. "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 Deliberate Design Flaws
The legal complaint presents a damning case against the tech giant. It states that the deaths of Murray and an American teenager, 13-year-old Levi Maciejewski, were "the foreseeable result of Meta's design decisions". The suit claims Meta repeatedly refused to implement known, affordable safety features because it prioritised user engagement over safety.
Specific allegations include the collection of personal data without proper consent and using that data to power recommendation algorithms. The lawsuit asserts Meta knew these systems were "operating in a manner that recommended teen Instagram users to sextortionists" it had already identified as predators.
Furthermore, it contends Meta made "false and misleading statements" about Instagram's safety for teenagers while internal testing allegedly revealed the platform was "matchmaking children to adult predators".
A Growing Crisis and a Call for Accountability
Sextortion cases have surged in recent years across the UK, US, and Australia. Criminals, often based in south-east Asia and west Africa, typically target teenage boys and young men. Earlier this year, it was reported that children as young as 11 were being targeted for the first time.
Matthew Bergman, the Doweys' lawyer and founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, stated that Meta is involved in all the US sextortion cases he has filed. "This complaint cites Meta records... those documents make the deliberateness of these design defects, lack of safeguards, and failures to warn clear," he said.
Mark Dowey reflected, "Nothing's really changed since Murray died. These predators can still get at our children." He described the lawsuit as "a way to get a wee bit of justice for Murray", adding, "They have known that their products are killing children by their unsafe design and they haven't done anything about it."
In October 2024, Instagram introduced new safety features, including blocking screenshots of disappearing messages, specifically to protect young users from scammers. Antigone Davis, Meta's head of global safety, acknowledged the "adversarial" nature of the crime, stating scammers constantly try to circumvent protections.
Meta has been approached for comment regarding the lawsuit. The case marks a significant moment in holding social media platforms accountable for real-world harms occurring on their services.
