By Gage Wilson
For Glasgow News 1
For Glasgow mother Shannon Heacock, walking into a federal courthouse in Oakland, California, carried a weight extending far beyond the landmark case against social media giant Meta unfolding inside.
Heacock, whose 16-year-old son Elijah “Eli” Heacock died last year after authorities said he became the victim of a sextortion scheme, traveled to California alongside other parents and advocates with the Heat Initiative as attorneys general from across the country took Meta to trial over allegations that the company knowingly designed Facebook and Instagram to addict young users while misleading the public about the platforms’ safety.
“Heart breaking, knowing that previously we had been given access to see files from the whistleblower and know that Meta knows exactly what it’s doing,” Heacock said of entering the courthouse. “Meta hasn’t changed anything since all this has been going on.”
The trial began Aug. 18 with Kentucky among four states leading the case against Meta, alongside California, Colorado and New Jersey.
Eight days later, Meta reached a sweeping settlement with states that could ultimately cost the company roughly $17.1 billion over the next decade while requiring changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate for children and teenagers.
“I was shocked,” Heacock said. “I got the message at 7:30 from our attorney general’s office…I know that there was no admission of the wrongdoing they did.”
Meta denied wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
The agreement requires a number of changes intended to protect younger users, including stronger efforts to identify children younger than 13 using its platforms, daily usage restrictions for teenagers and limits on notifications during nighttime and school hours. An independent auditor will also monitor portions of Meta’s compliance.
For Heacock, however, the settlement leaves two substantial concerns: how long those protections will remain in place and whether they address the type of online exploitation that preceded her son’s death.
“The only reason I am leery of those is because there is a time cap on them…it only lasts for 10 years and big tech designs addictive products targeting our kids,” she said. “I mean what’s going to happen in 10 years when my granddaughter will be 13 years old? What happens then? Does that leave it open to go back to the way it was?”
The settlement is structured over a 10-year period, during which Meta will make payments to participating states and remain subject to requirements contained in the agreement.
Heacock also questioned whether the agreement represents accountability for the company.
“It’s putting us in a bad spot with no accountability,” she said. “Tobacco is held accountable, alcohol is held accountable, why isn’t the internet held accountable?”
Perhaps more importantly for Heacock, she does not believe the safeguards contained in the settlement would have prevented what happened to Eli.
Heacock has previously said her son received more than 150 threatening messages in approximately 20 minutes as part of a financial sextortion scheme involving AI-generated explicit images. The person targeting Eli allegedly gathered information about his life through social media before threatening to distribute the images unless money was paid.
Asked whether the protections Meta agreed to implement would have made a difference during those roughly 20 minutes, Heacock was unequivocal.
“No, because they’re still not addressing the grown men and women targeting our children,” she said.
While the settlement includes protections intended to make it more difficult for accounts Meta identifies as potentially suspicious adults to find and interact with teenagers, many of its most prominent provisions instead focus on age verification, limiting time spent on the platforms and reducing features states alleged contributed to compulsive use among young people.
For Heacock, that means the settlement is not the conclusion of the push for greater regulation of social media companies.
“We have more, we have the Kids Online Safety Act known as KOSA,” she said. “KOSA has the strongest protections to date including a real, enforceable duty of care. The next push is to get this to President Trump’s desk before November.”
KOSA would establish additional federal protections for children using social media and other online platforms. The Senate version would impose a “duty of care” requiring covered platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent certain harms to minors associated with their product designs, while also requiring stronger default settings, parental tools and mechanisms for reporting harms involving children.
The legislation, however, remains before Congress. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced its version of KOSA by voice vote Aug. 5, but the measure has not received a vote by the full Senate this year. The House has pursued a separate online safety package that does not include the Senate bill’s duty-of-care provision, meaning differences between the chambers would still have to be resolved before legislation could reach the president’s desk.
While much of her criticism remains directed toward the companies operating those platforms, Heacock said parents are often the ones scrutinized after a child is harmed online.
“You can be a perfect parent, you can check their phones,” she said. “That’s the one comment if you notice on social media that you see when stories like this break is ‘Where is the parent?’ We were right here.”
Heacock said Eli knew he could come to his parents when something was wrong, leaving her to question what occurred during the brief period in which he was being threatened.
“Eli knew without a doubt that he could come to us with anything,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of fear they put into my child in that amount of time that he felt he could not wake me up.
“So, when people say ‘Look you didn’t check their phone, you didn’t care,’ I did care.”
Key Facts
• Glasgow mother Shannon Heacock traveled to California for a landmark trial against Meta over youth safety on Facebook and Instagram.
• The trial ended in an estimated $17.1 billion, 10-year settlement requiring new child-safety measures on Meta platforms.
• Heacock’s 17-year-old son Eli died last year after authorities said he was targeted in a rapid sextortion scheme using AI-generated images.
• She says the settlement lacks real accountability and would not have stopped the threats that preceded her son’s death.
• Heacock is now pushing for passage of the federal Kids Online Safety Act, which would impose a stronger duty of care on tech companies.
• The legislation has advanced in the Senate Commerce Committee but has not received a full Senate vote and differs from the House approach.
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