What to Do If Your Child Is Struggling
Your child's health and safety come before any legal question. A lawyer can wait until your child is getting care.
- If your child is in danger, call 911. Don't wait to sort out anything else.
- Get medical and mental health care. Keep every appointment and follow the plan your child's doctors, therapists and counselors set.
- Ask your child's doctor about phone and app use. Questions about how much your child uses social media, and what to change, belong with the people treating your child.
- Ask for copies of records. That includes hospital, doctor, therapy and counseling records. Keep them together in one place.
- Write down a timeline. Note when your child got a phone, when each account was opened, and when you first saw something was wrong.
- List the accounts. Write down each platform, the username and the email or phone number tied to it.
- Preserve account information safely. Before deleting accounts, messages or app data, consider asking a lawyer what information may need to be preserved. Screenshots, account history, usage information and communications may be relevant. Respect your child's privacy and avoid sharing sensitive records or account credentials unnecessarily.
Preserving evidence does not mean your child must continue using an app. Their health and safety come first.
What Are Social Media Harm Lawsuits About?
Some lawsuits allege that social media companies designed platform features that encourage excessive or compulsive use among children and teenagers, or failed to provide adequate safeguards against foreseeable harms.3 Families have alleged serious mental health and other injuries associated with these features.4
These are allegations, not findings that every platform or feature is defective. Whether a particular claim is legally viable depends on the evidence, the applicable law, and the relationship between the alleged conduct and the child's injuries.5 These cases involve complex legal questions, including which claims may proceed against social media companies under federal and state law.67
Filing Deadlines
Every claim has its own filing deadline.1 South Carolina generally provides a three-year limitations period for personal injury claims, but special rules may apply when the injured person is a minor. Some deadlines may be extended because of the child's age, while claims belonging to parents may have different deadlines.2
Social media lawsuits may also involve claims governed by other states' laws or special federal rules.8 The existence of national litigation or a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) does not automatically pause an individual's deadline.1
Because the applicable deadline depends on the claim and circumstances, families should seek legal advice promptly rather than assume they have additional time.1
If your family has lost a child, our page on wrongful death claims in South Carolina explains more. For more on cases like these, see our page on how mass tort cases work.
Want someone to look at your situation?
Talk with our team about what happened and ask the questions on your mind.
Talk With Us
These cases are about your child, and we take that seriously. We start by listening. We want to know about your child, what happened, when you noticed it and what care your child has had. We talk with you.
The firm is based in Charleston and takes social media harm cases across South Carolina.
South Carolina Law on This
- Every mass tort claim has its own filing deadline. Joining a mass tort investigation, contacting a law firm, or learning that a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) or other national litigation is underway does not automatically stop the limitations clock. The applicable deadline depends on the claim and the circumstances.1
- South Carolina generally provides a three-year limitations period for personal injury claims, but special rules may apply when the injured person is a minor. Some deadlines may be extended because of the child's age, subject to statutory limits and exceptions, while claims belonging to parents may have different deadlines.2
- The federal social media addiction litigation involves companies associated with several major platforms, including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Snap (Snapchat), TikTok and ByteDance (TikTok), and YouTube, Google and Alphabet (YouTube). The lawsuits allege that certain features of these platforms were designed to maximize the amount of time young people spend using them, potentially encouraging addictive patterns of use among adolescents. These are allegations made by the plaintiffs, not findings that the platforms are defective or that any company is liable.3
- Plaintiffs in the federal social media addiction litigation allege that certain design features of social media platforms contributed to emotional and physical harm among young users. The alleged injuries include mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, and some lawsuits involve allegations of death. These claims remain allegations and do not establish that social media use caused any particular person's injuries.4
- In social media harm cases, medical diagnoses, treatment records and evidence connecting the alleged platform conduct to a particular injury may be important in determining whether a legal claim can proceed.5
- In November 2023, the federal judge overseeing the social media addiction multidistrict litigation ruled that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act barred certain claims challenging how social media platforms publish or recommend third-party content, but did not bar every claim involving platform design. The court allowed certain claims concerning features such as parental controls, age verification, time-limit tools, and account deletion barriers to proceed past that stage of the litigation. The ruling addressed whether the claims could proceed under Section 230, not whether the plaintiffs had proved their allegations.6
- Federal law generally protects websites, online platforms, and other users from defamation liability for content provided by someone else. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a website or platform generally cannot be held liable as the publisher or speaker of content provided by another person.7
- South Carolina generally provides a three-year limitations period for personal injury lawsuits, but in mass tort and similar cases other states' laws or special federal rules may apply depending on the product, exposure, location and circumstances. A case being transferred to a federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) does not automatically make the law of the MDL court's state apply.8
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my child have a case?
No article can tell you that. It depends on your child's history, care and records. The way to know is to talk through what happened with a lawyer.
Should my child stop using social media?
That is a question for your child's doctor or counselor, not a lawyer. They know your child and can talk through what makes sense for your family. What a lawyer can do is explain the legal side and help you keep the records that matter. If your child is in danger right now, call 911.
Does my child need a diagnosis before we call?
No. You can contact a lawyer while your child is still being evaluated or receiving treatment. However, medical diagnoses, treatment records and evidence connecting the alleged platform conduct to a particular injury may be important in determining whether a legal claim can proceed.5 Continue following your child's treatment plan and preserve relevant records.
Sources
This page is general information about South Carolina law, not legal advice for your situation. Every case depends on its own facts.
