Irene Roggero Ugues is the mother of a 12-year-old girl named Rossella who died by suicide in February 2024, and has joined a groundbreaking lawsuit against Meta and TikTok.

Rossella’s parents said she had turned “totally different” since falling into the pornographic content of depression and self-harming and posting it on social media. Following her death, they logged into her devices and found she had been using social media more than they thought, making use of a hidden Instagram account, “Just a dead pers0n.”

The family says Rossella started searching for content related to depression in September 2023. After she consumed such material, platforms fed back into her cycle, pushing her back into related material, further fueling her emotional turmoil. Irene gave the process a gradual takeover of her daughter’s outlook, and she was usually a very cheerful person.

Rossella’s parents are among a group of Italian families that are going after Meta and TikTok in what is thought to be the first collective action against social media algorithms in Italy. The plaintiffs seek stronger protections for minors, more limits on the presence of kids on the platforms, and more awareness of potential dangers. 

The two firms have both denied the claims. Meta has added safety features like Teen Accounts and inbuilt protection that it claims will keep younger users safe. TikTok claims it proactively takes down harmful content, has policies relating to mental health and includes resources for vulnerable users. Both firms say there are other factors affecting adolescent mental health than social media.

Irene sees the drop in her daughter’s performance as a sudden illness that made her family feel helpless. She thinks that the algorithms were feeding her more and more negative information, which in turn worsened the emotions she was having toward Rossella. If she hadn’t been reinforced, she says, her daughter’s problems would have manifested themselves in another way.

The case is coming at a time when there is increasing worry globally about the effect of social media on youth. In Europe, both regulators are tightening up online platforms’ oversight, and Britain has announced that it will make social media inaccessible to kids under 16 years of age under the Digital Services Act. In the U.S., courts have also been looking into whether the big tech firms have built their platforms in ways that can be detrimental to young users.

The idea is not to ban social networks but to solve technological and marketing issues that can impact the most vulnerable children, says lawyer Stefano Commodo, who’s leading the case alongside the Italian parents’ association MOIGE.

Proponents of the platform say that the current security measures aren’t enough; children can circumvent them, turn off filters or change devices. Valentina Muraglie from Italy’s association of large families said it can be a full-time job to keep an eye on kids’ online activities, which makes it hard for many families to keep a close eye on their kids’ activities.

Research into the impact of social media on youth is ongoing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has alerted the world that social media use is a problem among young people and linked to lower well-being, sleep problems, and other health issues. A few research reports have indicated brain changes in heavy teenagers as well.

The suit states that the platforms rely on like counts, notifications and other engagement features to release dopamine, which helps to stimulate users to continue using the sites, like how gambling products do it. This may lead to dependence, particularly in the developing adolescent, plaintiffs allege.

But not everyone is convinced that social media is to blame. But psychologist Federico Tonioni of Gemelli Hospital in Rome says there is a danger of jumping to conclusions, and that too much control could backfire. He believes in listening to young people and establishing trust, which can be more effective than tight monitoring.

It’s about not having to suffer the same tragedy as Irene; for those families, the lawsuit is about. Many parents still don’t know of the dangers of algorithm-driven content, and she looks forward to a future where more people will be aware of its dangers and help keep vulnerable children safe.