A Scottish couple is taking legal action against Meta after their teenage son took his own life following a blackmail incident on Instagram, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK.
Murray Dowey, a 16-year-old from Dunblane, fell victim to sextortion in December 2023.
His parents are now pursuing a lawsuit in a US court, seeking punitive damages and claiming that Instagram was not a safe platform.
Meta, which also owns Facebook, said it collaborates with law enforcement to prosecute criminals behind sextortion, adding, “we continue to fight them on our apps on multiple fronts.”
Reports indicate that Murray had been deceived by criminals operating from West Africa. He died at his home in Dunblane after being targeted by scammers posing as a young girl.
The attackers tricked him into sending intimate images, threatening to expose them to his family unless he paid money.
The Doweys’ lawyers argue that Meta “knew of safety features that would prevent sextortion” before Murray’s death, but instead “prioritised profit.”
The company has previously stated that it implemented real changes to Instagram, including teen accounts with built-in protections and parental controls over children’s online activity.
Murray’s parents, Mark and Ros Dowey, are leading the legal action. In a BBC News interview, Ros said, “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.”
The lawsuit, filed by the Social Media Victims Law Center on behalf of the Doweys, is believed to be the first UK case of its nature.
Alongside them, a woman from Pennsylvania, Tricia Maciejewski, whose 13-year-old son Levi Maciejewski also took his life, is included in the legal action.
Sextortion has grown into a major problem in Nigeria, involving thousands of young men known as “yahoo boys.” Court documents cite a report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, describing the issue as a “digital pandemic” and highlighting its widespread impact.
A Meta spokesperson said that since 2021, teenagers under 16 are automatically placed into private accounts on Instagram, requiring approval for new followers. “We work to prevent accounts showing suspicious behaviour from following teens and avoid recommending teens to them,” they said. “We also take other precautionary steps, like blurring potentially sensitive images sent in DMs and reminding teens of the risks of sharing them, and letting people know when they’re chatting to someone who may be in a different country.”
