A Scottish couple whose teenage son tragically died by suicide after falling victim to an Instagram sextortion scheme have filed a lawsuit against Meta, the platform's owner, marking what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK.
Murray Dowey, a 16-year-old from Dunblane, became a victim of sextortion in December 2023 when scammers, allegedly operating from West Africa, tricked him into sending intimate images by posing as a young girl. They then threatened to expose these images to his family if he did not pay.
His parents, Mark and Ros Dowey, have initiated legal proceedings against Meta in a US court, seeking punitive damages with claims that Instagram is not a safe platform. They contend that Meta was aware of safety features that could prevent such predicaments but allegedly prioritized profit over user safety. Meta, which also owns Facebook, stated it supports law enforcement efforts against sextortion and is actively implementing safety measures on its platforms.
In a conversation with BBC News, Murray’s mother, Ros, expressed their determination: “The worst thing that could possibly happen to us has happened. There's nothing that Meta can do that is worse than what's happened so we're up for the fight. We'll take it as far as we can.”
This lawsuit is filed by the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) on behalf of the Dowey family. It is also filed alongside another case involving Tricia Maciejewski from Pennsylvania, whose 13-year-old son, Levi, similarly took his own life. The court documents cite a report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, which highlights sextortion as a significant issue, describing it as a "digital pandemic."
A spokesperson for Meta indicated that since 2021, teenagers under 16 signing up for Instagram are placed into private accounts, necessitating their approval for new followers. They elaborated on other safety precautions like preventing suspicious accounts from following teens, blurring potentially sensitive images in direct messages, reminding teens of the risks of image sharing, and notifying users if they are communicating with someone overseas.