Meta faces Australian class actions after teen's eating disorder spiral

Amelia Luca was 16, strong, and dreaming of a career in medicine when Victoria's COVID lockdowns hit. That's when the Cheltenham teenager started tracking her fitness and comparing her food intake with strangers on social media. What her feed gave back, she says, was an inescapable stream of pro-anorexia content that taught her how to hide food, exercise through the night and eventually stop eating altogether.

Now 22, Amelia has been hospitalised multiple times and is too unwell for an eating disorder clinic because her weight is too low. She's signed with Shine Lawyers, which is investigating potential action against Meta and other platforms over alleged harms tied to social media addiction and design. Her mother, Lyn, isn't mincing words. She calls the illness a slow suicide, and says the platforms are teaching it, then feeding it.

The timing is pointed. Meta has agreed to landmark US settlements with nearly every state and territory, paying up to $US18 billion ($26 billion) over ten years to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children. The deal also locks in time limits, stronger parental controls, age checks and curbs on features alleged to fuel compulsive use. Meta denied wrongdoing as part of that settlement.

Shine's head of class actions, Craig Allsopp, said the US result matters for Australian families who've raised the same worries, and that if they've been affected, they deserve answers. Shine is one front. MinterEllison lodged a separate class action against Meta Platforms and related entities in the Federal Court of Australia on October 9, acting for children and teens harmed by addictive design and harmful content before they turned 18. Eight lead plaintiffs are on board, their details suppressed, with the first case management hearing set for November 3.

Meta told Reuters it was aware of the claim and would defend itself vigorously. The Age contacted the company and got no response. Litigation Lending Services is bankrolling MinterEllison's push, and CEO Susan Wynne says the size and global reach of big tech shouldn't shield it from scrutiny. She wants the case to drive real change in how platforms treat young users.

Australia already banned social media for under-16s in 2025, but eSafety Commission data shows 42 per cent of kids aged 10 to 15 still have an account. Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced a Digital Duty of Care Bill in October that would slap heavy fines on breaching companies. The Butterfly Foundation's Mel Wilton says eating disorders in Australia are up 21 per cent since 2012, with young people hit hardest, and backs naming disordered eating as a harm platforms must prevent. Lyn Luca's ask is smaller and bigger at once: that other children don't get caught up in this.