Murray Dowey: Scottish parents of sextortion victim who took his own life sue Meta

Murray Dowey, 16, from Dunblane, ended his own life in December 2023 after he was tricked into sending intimate images of himself by someone posing as a young girl.

His mother and father, Mark and Ros Dowey, have launched a lawsuit against Meta in a US court. The pair’s lawyers claim the company "knew of safety features that would prevent sextortion" before the boy’s death and instead "prioritised profit".

Sextortion is a form of online blackmail which involves criminals targeting people, often young adults and teenagers, threatening to expose intimate images of them if they do not co-operate.

It is thought criminals behind the scam which led to the teen’s death were based in West Africa.

The lawsuit has been filed by the Social Media Victims Law Center (SMVLC) on behalf of Mr and Mrs Dowey and is believed to be the first UK case of its kind.

Mrs Dowey told BBC news: "The worst thing that could possibly happen to us has happened.

"There's nothing that Meta can do that is worse than what's happened so we're up for the fight.

"We'll take it as far as we can."

In response to ITV, a spokesperson for Meta said: “Sextortion is a horrific crime. We support law enforcement to prosecute the criminals behind it and we continue to fight them on our apps on multiple fronts.

"Since 2021, we’ve placed teens under 16 into private accounts when they sign up for Instagram, which means they have to approve any new followers.

"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.”