EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes a discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
Walker Montgomery was just 16 when someone pretending to be a teenage girl messaged him through Instagram and seduced him into cybersex.Within hours he was dead. Caught up in a sextortion scheme, the Mississippi teen killed himself. —-EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.—-His father, Brian Montgomery, will never get over losing his son but he was among many parents celebrating this week as social media giant Meta lost two court cases where juries in different states ruled the platforms hook young users without concern for their well being.Montgomery sees it as a reckoning.“We’re talking about the most financially sound business that the planet has ever known. This will set an expectation,” said Montgomery on Wednesday after juries in New Mexico and Los Angeles found social media providers failed to protect young users. And he isn’t alone. Other parents agree: There have been too few safeguards, and kids are suffering.
