What Evidence Do I Need for a Social Media Harm Claim?
Less than you fear, and more than you should try to assemble alone. The strongest evidence in social media and AI harm cases is not the family's screenshots. It is the platform's own data, usage records, recommendation history, safety flags, internal research, which lawyers obtain through preservation demands and discovery once a case begins. What a family controls is the foundation: the accounts themselves, the device, the medical records, and the timeline. The single most important rule is negative: do not delete anything. This guide lists what to preserve, what platforms hold that you cannot see, and how the evidence maps to what these cases have to prove. It is general information, not legal advice for any specific situation.
Reach out to usThe first rule: preserve, don't curate
Grief and anger make people delete: the app, the account, the conversations that hurt to look at. In a potential legal claim, deletion is the most damaging thing a family can do, because the account is the case. Keep the device as it is, keep the accounts open, and change passwords rather than closing anything. Most platforms offer a data export, Google Takeout, Meta's Download Your Information, TikTok's Request Your Data, and similar tools on AI companion apps, which captures history the app's interface does not show. A lawyer's first act is typically a preservation letter that legally obligates the platform to retain the account's full records; that letter works best when sent before anything is closed.
What to gather, in priority order
| Evidence | Why it matters | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| The accounts and devices themselves | The authoritative record of usage, content, and messages | Keep logged in; export data; change passwords instead of deleting |
| Chat transcripts and DMs | In AI companion cases, the conversations are the core of the claim | In-app history plus the platform's data export |
| Screen-time records | Establishes the intensity and pattern of use | iOS Screen Time, Android Digital Wellbeing, carrier records |
| Medical and counseling records | Connects the use to the harm; establishes timing | Providers; request complete records, not summaries |
| School records | Shows the trajectory: attendance, grades, disciplinary changes | The school or district |
| A written family timeline | Memory fades; contemporaneous notes anchor everything | Write it now, dated, while details are fresh |
| Parental control and safety settings history | Shows the family used the tools the platform offered, and what they missed | Platform family-center dashboards, emails confirming settings |
What the platforms hold that you cannot see
The evidence that has moved juries in these cases mostly came from the companies. In the social media litigation, internal research about youth harm, engagement-optimization decisions, and safety features studied but not shipped became central trial evidence. Platforms also hold what no user can export: full recommendation and algorithmic history, session-level engagement data, safety classifier flags on the account, age-estimation signals, and moderation records. Families sometimes hesitate to come forward because their own records feel thin. That has it backwards: the family's job is to preserve the foundation and the timeline; the machinery of discovery exists to get the rest.
How the evidence maps to the claim
These cases generally have to show three things. Use: that the minor used the product, and how much, which is what account data and screen-time records establish. Causation: that the product's design contributed to the harm, which is where transcripts, recommendation history, and medical records connecting the use to the injury do their work, and where the platform's internal documents matter most. Harm: the injury itself, established through medical records, counseling records, school trajectory, and in the worst cases the records no family should have to gather, which is precisely why firms handle those requests. No single item is dispositive, and gaps are normal; cases are built from the pattern, not from one perfect document.
What this means for you
If your family is weighing a claim, the evidence question should not stop you. Preserve the accounts, export what the platforms let you export, order the medical records, and write the timeline. Everything else is the legal system's job to extract, and the sooner a preservation demand goes out, the more of it survives. An evaluation costs nothing and does not commit you to anything.
This article is general educational information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. What a claim requires turns on facts specific to each situation, and the law can change. Blueshoe's investigation into social media and AI companion harm is open, and submissions are reviewed free of charge and confidentially. If you or someone you love is in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. A licensed Arizona attorney reviews these guides.