This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
In recent months, a wave of grief and outrage has swept across families and communities in the United States and beyond, as the devastating consequences of online sextortion schemes targeting teenagers have come sharply into focus. Two families, one from Pennsylvania and the other from Scotland, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, alleging that the tech giant failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect young users from predatory schemes that ultimately led to the suicides of their sons. According to reporting from Fox News and other outlets, their suit is just one of several now confronting Meta over the same issue.
Tricia Maciejewski's 13-year-old son, Levi, died by suicide in 2024 after falling victim to a sextortion scheme on Instagram, while Rosalind and Mark Downey's 16-year-old son, Murray, took his own life in 2023 under eerily similar circumstances. Both boys were ensnared by strangers who posed as romantic interests online, lured them into sharing nude photographs, and then threatened to expose those images to friends and family unless the teens complied with further demands—either for more images or for money. The families' lawsuit alleges that Meta was well aware of such dangers on its platform but chose to prioritize user engagement and profits over the safety of vulnerable minors.
"Meta’s secret is out. For years, Meta knew Instagram was a hunting ground for predators, yet chose to protect engagement metrics over children’s lives," said Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing the families. "That conscious decision to connect random strangers to children has cost families their sons and daughters, turning Instagram into the epicenter of sextortion‑related youth suicides. Had they chosen to follow their own internal recommendations they could have saved countless lives."
The lawsuit is built on a foundation of troubling internal findings and missed opportunities. As reported by Fox News, a 2022 internal audit at Meta revealed that Instagram’s "Accounts You May Follow" tool had, in a single day, suggested 1.4 million accounts to teenage users that were potentially engaged in inappropriate interactions with minors. Even more concerning, Meta’s own safety researchers had recommended as early as 2019 that all teenage accounts should default to private settings—a measure the company declined to implement until late 2024, well after the deaths of Levi and Murray.
Meta did announce some restrictions in 2021, limiting direct messaging between teenagers and adults they do not follow. However, according to the lawsuit, these changes were insufficient, applying only to new teenage accounts and failing to establish a "true default setting" that would have shielded all minors. It was not until late 2024 that Meta finally applied comprehensive "private-by-default" settings and other important safeguards for teenage accounts, a move the families argue came tragically too late.
In response to the lawsuit, Meta did not directly address the families’ claims but emphasized its ongoing efforts to combat sextortion on its platforms. "Sextortion is a horrific crime," a company spokesperson stated. "We support law enforcement to prosecute the criminals behind it, and we continue to fight them on our apps on multiple fronts." The spokesperson added, "We work to prevent accounts showing suspicious behavior from following teens and avoid recommending teens to them. 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." Meta also reiterated that since 2021, teenagers under 16 have been given private accounts at sign-up, though the lawsuit disputes the effectiveness and reach of this policy until late 2024.
The tragedy of Levi and Murray is not isolated. According to FBI data cited by FOX6 News, sextortion schemes have resulted in at least 20 suicides between October 2021 and March 2023, with most victims being males aged 14 to 17. The scope of the problem extends well beyond the two families now suing Meta. In Milwaukee, Brittney Bird is facing her first Christmas without her son, Bradyn Bohn, who died by suicide in March 2025 at the age of 15 after being targeted in a similar sextortion scheme. Bird described Bradyn as "definitely a kid who we were just so proud of," noting that he had never shown signs of depression or mental illness. "Bradyn never struggled with or suffered from mental illness or depression or anything of that nature so immediately we knew, you know something's wrong," she told FOX6 News. Police investigations later revealed that Bradyn had been the victim of online coercion and blackmail, a discovery that left his family reeling and desperate for answers.
Sextortion, as defined by Jesse Crowe from the Wisconsin Department of Justice, is "a form of online child exploitation where a child is coerced by a perpetrator to send compromising images." Once perpetrators secure explicit images or videos, they exploit their victims by demanding further images, money, or even sexual favors, threatening to release the initial material if their demands are not met. The FBI and law enforcement agencies warn that suspects often pose as peers or romantic interests, making it all too easy for unsuspecting teens to fall into their traps.
In the wake of Bradyn’s death, Wisconsin took decisive legislative action. Earlier this month, Governor Tony Evers signed "Bradyn’s Law," which creates a new crime of sexual extortion in the state and sets harsh penalties for those who exploit children online. The law’s passage is seen by advocates as a critical step toward raising awareness and providing justice for victims. "It will bring, hopefully statewide, eventually nationwide attention to where every family is having this conversation with their kids," Bird said.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, in a public service announcement issued in December 2025, urged parents and children to take specific steps if they find themselves targeted by sextortion schemes: block the perpetrator, report the account (but do not delete the messages), confide in a trusted adult, and never send money. These recommendations echo a growing consensus among child safety advocates that education, open dialogue, and swift action are essential in combating this evolving threat.
As the lawsuits against Meta proceed and states like Wisconsin enact new laws to address the crisis, families, policymakers, and tech companies alike face urgent questions: Are current protections sufficient? Can technology companies be trusted to prioritize safety over profits? And, most importantly, how can communities best shield their children from the dark corners of the internet? The answers remain elusive, but the stories of Levi, Murray, and Bradyn serve as a stark reminder that the stakes could not be higher.
For now, families continue to grieve, lawmakers push for reform, and the world waits to see if meaningful change will follow the heartbreak.
