A South Carolina lawmaker is suing Instagram after his son died by suicide

(CNN) — About two weeks after his oldest son’s funeral, South Carolina state house Rep. Brandon Guffey says he received a private Instagram message with a laughing emoji.

Gavin Guffey, 17, had fatally shot himself in a bathroom in July 2022, and the grieving father was searching for clues on what led to his suicide.

Then Guffey and his younger son began to get messages demanding money in exchange for nude photos of his late son. Anyone on Gavin’s Instagram followers list who had the last name Guffey got similar messages, his father says.

The family began piecing together Gavin’s last moments and discovered he had encountered a scammer on Instagram and unwittingly became a victim of sexual extortion, a crime the FBI warns is increasingly targeting underage boys and leading to an alarming increase in suicides nationwide.

Now Guffey is suing Instagram’s parent company, Meta, for wrongful death, gross negligence and other claims, saying it does not do enough to protect children like Gavin from online predators.

The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina state court last week, accuses Meta’s social media platforms of causing a range of problems in children, including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and eating disorders. It alleges that Meta uses algorithms to aggressively target adolescents and does not do enough to keep them safe from harm.

In the suit, Guffey says Meta does not have tools in place to protect underage kids who use its platforms in “almost every aspect of their lives” and are unaware of its potentially negative effects.

In a statement emailed to CNN, a Meta spokesperson did not directly respond to the allegations in the lawsuit.

But the spokesperson said that teen safety is a big priority for the company and that it offers dozens of resources to help its young users stay safe. The company says it also encourages teens to seek help and to fight back if they’ve been targeted.

Gavin Guffey texted his friends shortly before his death

Minutes before he died by suicide at his home in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Gavin texted his younger brother and his friends a heart-shaped symbol of love – <3 – on a black background.

Since then, Guffey has been outspoken about his son’s death and sponsored legislation last year that makes sexual extortion an aggravated felony punishable by years in prison if the victim is a minor or vulnerable adult or if the victim suffers bodily injury or death directly related to the crime.

State senators passed the bill and named it “Gavin’s Law” before sending it to Gov. Henry McMaster, who signed it into law.

Before Gavin’s death by suicide, scammers had reached out to him on Instagram, convinced him he was talking to a girl his age and persuaded him to send nude photos, his father says.

The extortion started almost immediately after. The scammers demanded money, and Gavin sent $25 via Venmo, which is all he had at the time, Guffey says. He pleaded with his scammers to give him more time.

“He was telling them he would get them more money, please don’t send these images out … they didn’t care,” Guffey says. “I think in his mind it was just too much, and he didn’t know how he would overcome that.”

After his death, the scammers sent Guffey a laughing face emoji and a message using a pseudo account on Instagram after the original one was shut down. “It said, ‘did I tell you your son begged for his life?’” Guffey says. They also demanded money in exchange for the photos.

Law enforcement officials told him not to respond, but he says it took every ounce of strength he had to ignore it.

“There were numerous accounts tied to one person. They took one down, and the person then began to extort my 14-year-old cousin, my 16-year-old son, they even went as far as sending me a message saying my son begged for his life. This was within 30 days of me burying my son,” he says.

Sextortion mainly targets teen boys, the FBI says

Sextortion predators typically trick young victims, usually teen boys, into believing they are talking to girls their own age. They persuade them to send explicit photos and videos, and threaten to publicize those images if a payment is not sent.

The scammers are typically located outside the US. Shame, fear and confusion often prevent minors from seeking help or reporting the abuse, the FBI says.

Guffey says at least one or two families whose children have been victims of sextortion reach out to him daily. Some are struggling in the shadows because they don’t want to tarnish their kids’ names, he says.

“Meta is one of the major platforms that this happens on,” he told CNN last week. “Meta never does enough. It’s ridiculous that these predators continue to come online and go after our children.”

In a news release last week, the FBI said it observed a 20% rise in reports of financially motivated online sextortion scams involving underage victims from October 2022 to March 2023 compared to the same period the previous year. It’s just the latest warning federal officials have issued in recent months reminding parents to be vigilant.

“The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes,” Douglas DePodesta, special agent in charge of the bureau’s Memphis office, said in a statement. “We need parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help children come forward if it does.”

Between October 2021 and March 2023, federal officials received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors, which led to at least 20 suicides, the FBI said last week.

Sextortion scams have increasingly made headlines nationwide. In August, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan extradited two men from Nigeria for allegedly extorting young men and teenage boys.

One of the men was charged with causing the death of Jordan DeMay, 17, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Marquette, Michigan, home in March 2022. The case is still pending.

In a similar case, a man was sentenced last year to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to an extortion charge related to the death of Ryan Last, 17, who killed himself in February 2022 in San Jose, California, hours after being victimized by a sextortion scam.

The lawsuit alleges that social media is harmful to children

Meta, which also owns Facebook, says in its statement to CNN that it has numerous tools to ensure teens are safe and support parents on its platforms.

Some of the resources include educational materials to empower teens ensnared in online scams and to reduce the shame and stigma surrounding exposure, Meta says.

“We … have over 30 tools and resources to support them and their parents,” the company says. “We encourage teens and adults to report suspicious content, activity or accounts to us if they feel unsafe and we reach out to law enforcement in cases of imminent harm.”

But Guffey says he believes that Meta and other social media companies are not being held accountable and is urging other parents to fight back.

“If I have a party on my property, and I invite everybody on there, I’m responsible for what happens on my property,” Guffey told CNN.  “And for some reason, we treat these digital companies different. These companies hide behind section 230 and say they’re not responsible.”

Section 230, a federal law and part of the Communications Decency Act, provides legal immunity to websites that host user-generated content.

Guffey’s lawsuit alleges that Meta uses algorithms to keep young users engaged and “scrolling in an induced flow state.”

Research has highlighted harmful effects facing children and teens who are frequent social media users, Guffey says, citing a lawsuit against Meta by 42 attorney generals accusing the company of “harmful features on Instagram and Facebook.”

Guffey says grieving parents whose children die by suicide after sextortion are left searching for answers.

Some scammers use disappearing messages that vanish as soon as the recipient exits the chat, Guffey says.  “They’re not leaving a note. The parents are questioning why, and these messages are gone,” he says.

Other parents decline to speak up for fear of harming their child’s reputation, he says.

Guffey says the fight to be a voice for other parents is a big part of his legislative platform. And he’s fully committed: He’s tattooed a heart symbol — his son’s last text message — on his left arm.

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