At Bautista LeRoy LLC, we represent folks all across northwest Arkansas, who have suffered serious injuries at the hands of negligent drivers, nursing homes, and other wrongdoers. We fight hard every day to make sure our clients receive the full compensation they deserve under Arkansas law. One of the most overlooked threats to a personal injury case is something almost everyone carries in their pocket: a smartphone loaded with social media apps. We tell all our clients at after an accident, what you post, share, or even privately message on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube can seriously damage your legal claim. It can also expose you and your children (especially teenagers) to lasting emotional harm. The reality is social media should treated like any vice, alcohol, cigars or sugar; best used in moderation.

Why Insurance Companies Love Your Social Media

As we have said in countless prior blogs, Insurance companies are not your friends and they are not there the help you, despite what they say on TV. From the moment a claim is filed, insurance adjusters and lawyers are working to find ways to minimize or deny your claim. One of their most effective weapons they have at their disposal is your own social media account. Under the laws of Arkansas, the insurance company can subpoena your social media records, request your post history, and use photographs or check-ins against you in court.

Even a seemingly innocent photo at a family cookout or a post about running errands  can be twisted by the insurance company to argue that your injuries are not as serious as you claim. Further some posts have geolocation data. These posts with this location data can contradict your account of where you were and what you were doing. 

The safest rule of thumb: say nothing on social media about your accident, your injuries, or your daily activities while your case is pending. We request our clients, adjust their privacy settings immediately, and do not accept new friend requests from people they do not know. Defense investigators routinely create fake profiles to try to access plaintiff's accounts.

The National Wake-Up Call: Meta, Snapchat, and YouTube in Court

Besides being detrimental to your case, social media can really hurt your mental health. Recent landmark litigation has exposed just how dangerous social media platforms can be, particularly for children and teens. These cases are reshaping how parents think about these platforms.

In March 2026, a California jury delivered a historic verdict, finding Meta (Instagram's parent company) and YouTube liable for causing serious mental health injuries to a young woman who became addicted to YouTube at age six and Instagram at age nine. The jury awarded her $6 million in damages. Snapchat and TikTok, which were also named in the case, settled for undisclosed amounts before the jury reached a verdict. Separately, a New Mexico jury found Meta liable for violating state consumer protection law and ordered the company to pay $375 million in damages for misleading the public about platform safety and failing to protect minors from predators.

These are not isolated cases. More than 2,000 individual product liability claims are currently consolidated in federal Multi-District Litigation (MDL No. 3047) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. These lawsuits allege that Meta, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, and Discord knowingly designed addictive features that caused clinical depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and suicidal ideation in teen users.

The evidence  and strategies used by these companies is chilling. Internal Meta researchers reportedly described Instagram in company documents as a drug, openly comparing the company to pushers. Internal Snapchat documents identified features like infinite scroll and autoplay as what engineers themselves called “unhealthy gaming mechanics,” acknowledging that users feel “obligated” to maintain contact streaks in ways that “become stressful.” YouTube's own internal research recognized that short-form videos trigger what the company described as an “addiction cycle,” yet the platform developed its Shorts feature anyway.

These companies knew. And they continued to target children and teens anyway.

Arkansas Is Fighting Back

Arkansas has been at the forefront of the national effort to protect children from social media harm. In 2023, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the Social Media Safety Act, Act 689 of 2023, the first law of its kind in the nation, requiring social media platforms to verify the age of new account holders and mandating parental consent before minors could create accounts.

Following legal challenges, Arkansas amended the law with S.B. 611, signed in April 2025. The amended law lowers the protected age threshold to users 16 and under, prohibits social media algorithms from specifically targeting minors, requires safety settings to be turned on by default for minor accounts, and restricts notifications on minor accounts between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The law also establishes a private right of action allowing parents to sue social media companies in Arkansas state court when their child attempts or completes suicide as a result of exposure to harmful content on these platforms.

Additionally, the Arkansas attorney general filed suit against Google in September 2024, alleging that YouTube was deliberately designed to exploit and addict young users, contributing to a mental health crisis among Arkansas children. Arkansas Code § 4-88-1402 also codifies the requirement that social media platforms use reasonable age verification methods and obtain parental consent before permitting minors to create accounts.

These legal developments reflect what accident victims' families have known for years: social media companies place profit above the safety and wellbeing of your children.

What Parents Can Do Right Now

If your child has been injured in an accident or has suffered a traumatic event, protecting their mental and legal interests on social media requires immediate action. Here is what Bautista LeRoy LLC recommends:

• Turn off all social media notifications on your child's phone immediately. 
• Review your child's privacy settings on every platform. Accounts should be fully private, with no public-facing content.
• Instruct your child not to post anything about the accident, their injuries, their doctor's appointments, or how they are feeling physically or emotionally.
• Monitor your child's social media use for signs of increased anxiety, depression, isolation, or sleep disruption. 
• Consider temporarily deactivating accounts on the most addictive platforms — particularly Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.
• Seek a mental health evaluation for your child after any serious accident. 
• Speak with an attorney before you post anything or allow your child to post anything about the accident online.

Under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Arkansas's Children and Teens' Online Privacy Act (HB 1717, effective July 1, 2026), parents have rights and remedies when platforms collect data and exploit the emotional vulnerabilities of their minor children. Bautista LeRoy LLC stays current with these evolving laws to make sure our clients understand every avenue available to protect their families.

Call Bautista LeRoy LLC in Bentonville, Arkansas

Navigating a serious personal injury claim in Arkansas is complicated enough without the added danger of social media threatening your recovery — legally and emotionally. At Bautista LeRoy LLC, we counsel our clients from day one about the hidden dangers that social media poses to their case and to their family's well-being. If you or a loved one has been injured and you are concerned about the impact of social media on your claim, do not wait give us a call. Contact Bautista LeRoy LLC today at 1-479-208-6614. Our office is located in Bentonville, Arkansas, and we represent injury victims throughout northwest Arkansas and the entire state.