Remember the days before social media? Perhaps we’re aging ourselves, but we do. We remember when sharing photos meant printing out photos and giving them to family and friends. We remember when “selfie” wasn’t even a word.

Nowadays, it seems that we can’t live without our phones and our devices. These phones are often hardly used for making actual phone calls. Texting, the internet, apps and social media are a large part of how we all use phones and other devices like tablets on a regular basis.

Meta is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, and these platforms have established an age limit where members have to be at least 13 years old. While many children would like to use social media platforms at a younger age, they would have to get around the rules and perhaps have the permission of their parents in order to do so.

Cecilia Tesch is a mother who lives in Pueblo, Colorado. She has a 13-year-old daughter who she says is addicted to social media. In her daughter’s case, she didn’t just start using social media recently after turning 13. No, according to Tesch, she has been using Facebook since she was just 7 years old.

Tesch is now suing Meta because of her daughter’s alleged addiction to social media. She claims that the platform is “addictive and problematic.” In the lawsuit, she also claims that Meta “designed Facebook to allow children and adolescents to use, become addicted to, and abuse their product without the consent of the users’ parents.”

According to Tesch, her daughter’s social media addiction has led to her daughter suffering from “body dysmorphia, eating disorder, self-harm, severe anxiety, depression.”

Personal injury lawfirm Morgan and Morgan is representing Tesch. This same lawfirm previously sued Facebook in 2018 claiming that the company sold user data that was collected through quizzes.

Tesch’s lawsuit claims, “Meta knowingly exploits teenage vulnerabilities for unjust gain.” In addition, the lawsuit states, “Meta knowingly lacks effective age-verification protocols.”

No word as to why Tesch, as the mom in this situation, allowed her daughter on social media at the age of 7 and why she didn’t limit her daughter’s use of the platform.

Do you think Tesch has a point and that it’s Meta’s fault her daughter is “addicted” to social media? Do you think there should be stronger age verification protocols to join social media platforms like Facebook? Do you think the age limit to join social media platforms should be older than 13? Do you think the mother is at all responsible for her daughter joining Facebook at age 7?