Amelia Luca clutches a football, looking for a pass.
asserted
Luca → clutch → pass
She’s 16, strong, playing with the Sandringham Dragons, and hoping for a career in medicine.
asserted
She → ’ → medicine
It was during COVID-19 lockdowns in Victoria that she began tracking her fitness and comparing her food intake with others on social media.
asserted
she → begin → media
The Cheltenham student, now aged 22, says her algorithm served her a diet of inescapable pro-anorexia content, teaching her how to hide her food, to exercise throughout the night, and eventually how to live without eating at all.
“It’s a slow suicide,” says her mother, Lyn Luca.
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mother → age → night
During year 12, Amelia’s illness got worse.
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illness → get → year
Other than schoolwork, she’d spend all of her time on social media watching what people eat in a day, what exercises they do, how to cut out food, and following other people with eating disorders.
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they → spend → disorders
I was going in for only two periods a day, getting Ubers to and from school because I was medically unfit,” Amelia said.
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Amelia → go → school
She’s been hospitalised multiple times but is too unwell to go to an eating disorder clinic because her weight is too low.
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weight → hospitalise → clinic
Amelia and her mother say Instagram and Facebook need to be held accountable for their role in her illness.
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Instagram → say → illness
“Social media is teaching and then feeding this illness,” Lyn said.
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Lyn → teach → illness
Lyn and Amelia have signed on with Shine Lawyers, which is investigating potential legal action against Meta and other social media companies over alleged harms linked to social media addiction and platform design.
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which → sign → addiction
The investigation comes as Meta agreed to landmark US settlements with nearly every state and territory, in which it agreed to pay up to $US18 billion ($26 billion) over 10 years to settle claims that Facebook and Instagram were harming children.
uncertain
Facebook → come → children
Meta also agreed to major changes for young users including time limits, stronger parental controls, age checks and limits on features alleged to fuel compulsive use.
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Meta → agree → use
As part of the settlement, Meta denied any wrongdoing.
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Meta → deny → wrongdoing
It’s one of multiple legal actions Meta has settled in recent months.
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Meta → ’ → months
Shine’s head of class actions, Craig Allsopp, said the US developments were significant for families in Australia who had raised concerns about the impact of social media on children and young people.
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who → say → children
“If Australian families have been affected, they deserve answers,” he said.
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he → affect → answers
Another law firm, MinterEllison, lodged a separate statement of claim for a class action against Meta Platforms and its related entities in the Federal Court of Australia on October 9.
uncertain
firm → lodge → October
The claim is on behalf of children and teenagers who suffered harm as a result of addictive design features and exposure to harmful content while under the age of 18.
uncertain
who → suffer → 18
MinterEllison seeks to recover compensation for current and former users, acting on behalf of eight lead plaintiffs across Australia, whose details and the statement of claim are suppressed.
uncertain
details → seek → claim
The Age contacted Meta for comment but did not receive a response.
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Age → contact → response
A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company was aware of the claim and would “defend ourselves vigorously”.
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company → tell → ourselves
Litigation Lending Services is funding MinterEllison’s fight, with chief executive officer Susan Wynne saying the size, wealth and global reach of big technology companies should not shield them from scrutiny or accountability.
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size → fund → scrutiny
LLS is encouraging affected young people to contact the service and has been working on this case well before the landmark US Meta settlement.
“Our hope is that this case achieves something much bigger and that is driving meaningful change in how major technology companies prioritise the safety and wellbeing of young people and ultimately helping to protect future generations from the potential harms of social media,” Wynne said.
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Wynne → encourage → media
The Australia government was the first to ban social media for children under 16 in 2025, but eSafety Commission data shows 42 per cent of children aged 10 to 15 still have a social media account.
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cent → ban → account
Communications Minister Anika Wells introduced a Digital Duty of Care Bill into parliament in October.
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Wells → introduce → October
If passed, it would mean companies face heavy fines for breaches.
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companies → pass → breaches
The Butterfly Foundation’s Mel Wilton says since 2012, there has been a 21 per cent rise in people with eating disorders in Australia, with young people disproportionately impacted.
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people → say → Australia
She said there was never one cause of an eating disorder, but she regularly hears from the community about social media content that perpetuates harmful beauty and body ideals, pushes diet culture and fatphobia, and encourages disordered relationships with food, eating and exercise, such as “what I eat in a day” content.
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I → say → content
While platforms have guidelines that prohibit this content, she said more needed to be done, and she supports the government’s suggestion to name disordered eating as a harm that platforms must prevent.
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platforms → have → that
Lyn said social media companies needed to better moderate content to ensure it wasn’t teaching people to harm themselves.
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it → say → themselves
“What am I hoping for?
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I → hop → What
Well, Amelia’s life will never be the same again, and social media will still be there,” Lyn said.
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Lyn → say → ?
“But if it means that it can save other children from getting caught up in all of this ... then I feel that would be an amazing thing to do.”
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that → mean → this
The Aporia
