Jaime Puerta’s 16-year-old son Daniel died four years ago after taking a counterfeit oxycodone pill made with pure fentanyl, the illicit opioid drug, that he purchased from a dealer he found on Snapchat. In 2022, Puerta sued Snapchat in a wrongful death lawsuit. At the time, his lawsuit was one of the first to accuse social media of posing a danger to children’s health.
Now there are hundreds of such lawsuits against social media platforms, alleging teenagers across the country have been harmed from exposure to social media, according to Matthew Bergman, the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, from where many of these lawsuits have been filed. In some of the cases, families allege their children used social media to buy drugs; in other cases, parents say their teens saw dangerous content and harmed themselves. There is a range of harms and heartbreak alleged in the filings.
Meta, TikTok and Snapchat outline on their websites that they prohibit content that promotes self-harm and the sales of prescription and opioid drugs. The platforms also have tools that allow parents to set time limits for their teens on the apps, verify user ages and restrict who they can message.
“We want to reassure every parent that we have their interests at heart in the work we’re doing to help provide teens with safe experiences online,” a Meta spokesperson told CNN. “These are complex issues but we will continue working with experts and listening to parents to develop new tools, features and policies that are effective and meet the needs of teens and their families.”
The social media companies filed motions to dismiss some of the cases under the First Amendment and Section 230, which states that tech companies cannot be held liable for some of the content that users post to their platforms. However, some cases, including with Puerta’s lawsuit, have already been approved to move forward in the court of law. All cases are still pending.
Snap did not comment on the status of some of the lawsuits but directed CNN to its community guides. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.
But with little movement in the courts or from lawmakers and drawn-out battles with regulators against Big Tech, some of those grieving families are looking elsewhere for progress. Instead of waiting for others to act, they are now teaming up with nonprofits, starting their own organizations and connecting with each other to try to save children across the country.

“All I am is a bereaved father who wants to make sure this doesn’t keep happening,” Puerta told CNN. “My son made a mistake [on social media] but it shouldn’t have cost him his life.”
Soon after Daniel died, Puerta founded an organization called VOID – Victims of Illicit Drugs – which offers parents and educators resources about the dangers of fentanyl-laced drugs and social media.
He said he has met with the Los Angeles police department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Homeland Security and other government agencies to address the topic. He also hosts student assemblies at high schools where he screens a short film that follows four families, including his own, who lost children to fentanyl-laced drugs purchased on social media platforms.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 80,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the US in 2022, many of which came from fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. Some drug traffickers advertise on social media platforms often via 24-hour disappearing posts, along with code words and emojis to evade law enforcement and platform algorithms, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
He said he has met with the Los Angeles police department, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Homeland Security and other government agencies to address the topic. He also hosts student assemblies at high schools where he screens a short film that follows four families, including his own, who lost children to fentanyl-laced drugs purchased on social media platforms.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 80,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the US in 2022, many of which came from fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. Some drug traffickers advertise on social media platforms often via 24-hour disappearing posts, along with code words and emojis to evade law enforcement and platform algorithms, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.