Englyn Roberts, 14, Dies by Suicide After Instagram and Snapchat Addiction, Louisiana
Incident Details
Summary
Englyn Roberts, 14, of New Iberia, Louisiana died by suicide on September 9, 2020 following years of addiction to Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok she had downloaded without her parents' knowledge at age 11. In September 2019, Instagram's algorithm recommended she and a friend links to extremely violent content including a video of a suicide. On July 15, 2020, Englyn messaged on Instagram that if she ever hurt herself her parents were not to blame. Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta, Snap, and ByteDance, alleging the platforms' addictive design and harmful content recommendation led directly to her death.
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