Hundreds of American families are suing social media giants like TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and Meta (parent company of Instagram and Facebook) in the US as they feel the tech companies are ‘big, bad monsters’.

According to IANS, the plaintiffs include ordinary families and school districts from across the US.

“I was trapped by addiction at age 12. And I did not get my life back for all of my teenage years,” Taylor Little, now 21, was quoted as saying in the report that came out on Monday.

Taylor’s social media addiction led to suicide attempts and years of depression.

“If I had my phone taken away, it felt like having withdrawals. It was unbearable. When I say it was addictive, I don’t mean it was habit-forming. I mean, my body and mind craved that,” she was quoted as saying.

Taylor also struggled with content around body image and eating disorders.

Taylor and hundreds of other American families are suing four of the biggest tech companies — Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Google and Snap Inc (parent of Snapchat).

“Lawyers for the families believe the case of 14-year-old British schoolgirl Molly Russell is an important example of the potential harms faced by teenagers,” a BBC report noted.

Russell, a seemingly happy teenager from northwest London, was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017.

It later emerged she had viewed masses of content related to suicide, depression, and anxiety online.

Russell’s name is mentioned a dozen times in the master complaint submitted to the court in California.

In a statement, Meta said that their thoughts are with the families represented in these complaints.

“We want to reassure every parent that we have their interests at heart in the work we are doing to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online,” the social media giant said.

Google said that the allegations in these complaints are “simply not true”. Snapchat said its platform “was designed to remove the pressure to be perfect. We vet all content before it can reach a large audience to prevent the spread of anything that could be harmful”.