She claimed that meeting Repasky inspired her to raise awareness of a situation that not everyone is ready to talk about.
However, there are other groups of people than parents who are supporting change and looking for help in their communities. Cece Nelter, a 19-year-old from Independence, Kentucky, joined a student-led discussion group with nearby high schools to discuss the harm social media can do to teenagers’ mental health. Nelter filed a lawsuit against Meta in July 2022, claiming the platform pushed her toward harmful content without her consent.
Nelter claimed that she joined Instagram at the age of 12 in order to maintain contact with her mother while living part-time at her father’s house. After they began exchanging recipes, she claims that Instagram began to gravitate toward her posts concerning bulimia and anorexia.
She slipped into heart failure and was hospitalized for anorexia nervosa after the site connected her with people, groups, videos, and posts with advice and methods on how to mask the fact that she was not eating, according to the lawsuit.
Nelter, who rose to the position of group leader, claimed that the discussion group “gave me the biggest sense of perspective.” You can learn a lot about the various students you may sit next to in class by having conversations with them about their mental health and other issues. I felt less alone and more motivated as a result.
In the meantime, Donna and Chris Dawley stated in a 2022 lawsuit that social networking platforms were a major factor in their 17-year-old son CJ’s decision to take his own life. At first, they said they were unaware of other families going through similar struggles. As Donna Dawley said to CNN, “Now we know so many.”