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Tennessee Conservative News [By Paula Gomes] –
Social media companies are being sued by multiple families, including a Tennessee parent, who lost a child to suicide. The lawsuit seeks damages, as well as mandated changes in how the platforms are designed for children.
Rivers “Riv” Kelleher, just 14-years-old at the time of her death, was the daughter of Avery Kelleher of Decherd, Tennessee. The lawsuit claims that years of exposure to the harmful platforms and addiction to social media contributed to the death of Rivers.
Attorneys for the families of four teenagers have filed claims against Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, stating that “years of escalating harms” from the platforms led to the devastating ending of their children’s lives.
Having been filed last week in Delaware’s Superior Court, the suit is the latest in a string of claims against the largest social media companies in the United States accusing them of designing their platforms to be addictive while downplaying the potential harms that came with prolonged use.
The four families being represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center come from five states: North Carolina, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Texas. Each plaintiff lost a child within a 14-month span between July 2024 and September 2025.
The children who ranged in age from 13 to 18 all experienced similar patterns as their use of social media increased. Once described by their families as normal and lively, they became ever more anxious, depressed, withdrawn, and lost sleep which eventually led to suicidal ideation as time went on and their use of the platforms became compulsive.
The suit alleges that the companies named as defendants knew that their platforms affected the mental health and well-being of children.
Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, stated, “These platforms continue to kill kids, despite the platitudes of their executives.”
The lawsuit uses internal company documents to point to a common goal of the platforms: keep young users on for as long as possible.
Meta documents described tweens as having “the highest long-term retention of any age group,” making them particularly valuable to the company.
Google had a stated goal to “create an app that is addictive.”
Snapchat patted itself on the back for having “absolutely owned the youth demographic.”
TikTok, meanwhile, programmed a hidden “unpairing” feature into its app that allowed young users to disconnect parental controls without their parents being aware.
Bergman says that the companies continually chose the engagement of youngsters on their platforms over “common-sense” design decisions which would have made them safer.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has already sued Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, alleging that Instagram caused a mental health crisis among minors.
The state alleges that Meta not only failed to disclose research that the company conducted internally and that showed that Instagram’s features could be harmful to minors, but they failed to warn users of these pitfalls.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg was purportedly warned numerous times by Meta employees about the research showing negative effects on minors but he declined to invest money into finding ways to minimize harms. Instead, Zuckerberg is accused of making misleading public statements about harmful content on Meta’s platforms.
Additional Sources:
https://www.legalreader.com/families-sue-social-media-lawsuit-teen-suicides-self-harm
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
