NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – A Florida mother is speaking out against a multi-state settlement with Meta, calling the tech giant’s payout inadequate after her teenage son died in 2019.
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Florida Meta settlement
What we know:
Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, opted out of an $18 billion settlement from Meta, after the social media giant agreed to pay 47 other states following lawsuits over social media’s impact on youth mental health. Uthmeier called the payout “peanuts” for a trillion-dollar corporation, while Florida continues to pursue a jury trial for financial damages.
Jennifer Mitchell, a New Port Richey mother, lost her 16-year-old son, Ian Ezquerra, to suicide in 2019. He died while filming and posting videos of himself playing Russian roulette on Snapchat. Mitchell said her son suffered in silence and became addicted and emotionally harmed by social media. Mitchell sued Meta and Snap in 2022, and her lawsuit remains active.
“Meta wanting to settle just shows that they know that they had a part in a bunch of people’s death,” Mitchell said. “It’s not necessarily about the money, but sometimes you got to hit them where it hurts in order for a company to make a difference if they’re that big. Sometimes they just don’t care.”
Teen social media protections
What we don’t know:
It remains unclear when an independent auditor will begin monitoring Meta or when Mitchell’s individual lawsuit against the tech companies will go to trial.
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As part of the settlement, Meta agreed to implement limited safety features rather than removing teenagers from its platforms entirely. The changes include daily two-hour time limits, pauses for kids on Instagram and Facebook, disabling push notifications during school hours, and stronger age-appropriate content controls.
Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center and attorney for Mitchell, said the safety adjustments are common sense but fall short of fixing core issues.
“First and foremost, the algorithms are still addictive,” Bergman said. “They still show kids not what they want to see, but what they can’t look away from. There’s no reason that it needs to be that way. Additionally, there are still inadequate protections for young people online who are groomed and accosted by adult predators. That’s something that really needs to change, and it needs to change quickly.”
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