Thirty-five states have filed a federal lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, claiming that the company has deliberately implemented algorithms designed to cause addictive behavior in children. Due to the developing mental health crisis affecting the youth across the nation, prosecutors and health professionals alike have cited social media practices as the fuel behind the worrying trends and are now calling for change.
The 233-page lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this past October, states that Meta “falsely [assured] the public that its features were safe and suitable for young users.” It is no secret that teenagers make up a substantial consumer group for social media sites, with teens spending an average of 4.8 hours everyday on social media. The link between excessive use of social media and one’s well-being has been well analyzed, with many researchers concluding that social media has small but significant effects in worsening anxiety, depression, and body image issues.
“Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem.”
Prosecutors claim that Meta created the apps with “manipulative and harmful features” designed to keep teenagers on the app. The result has been substantial advertisement profits for Meta at the expense of the teens’ well-being.
“It is very clear the decisions made by social media platforms like Meta are part of what is driving mental health harms, physical health harms and threats that we can’t ignore,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said to USA Today. “We have a youth mental health crisis in the United States of America.”
The lawsuit primarily aims to ensure that Meta cooperates with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and changes its “misleading” algorithms, according to Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. Attorneys General across the country are asking Meta to change the addictive nature of the platforms in hopes that young users will no longer be incentivised to use the dopamine-inducing apps.
“This is not about money,” Tennessee Attorney General Mike Hilgers said to USA Today. This is about protecting kids. What we want is for the company to change its behavior.”
Meta released an emailed statement, claiming that the company shares the goal of providing a safe experience for young users and has already implemented over 30 tools to do so.
It is very clear the decisions made by social media platforms like Meta are part of what is driving mental health harms, physical health harms and threats that we can’t ignore.
— Phil Weiser
“We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” Meta said, as reported by CBS News.
Currently, the case resides in the District Court. The Meta lawsuit will likely face similar challenges to other cases. Previous laws regarding the safety of children online have had difficulty in Congress as major tech companies lobby against them. Still, as data continues to reveal social media’s negative impact on adolescent mental health, the call for more ethical trade practices grows louder.
“We’ve been warning about Meta’s manipulation and harming of young people from its start and sadly it has taken years to hold it and other companies like Google accountable,” Jeffrey Chester, the executive director of consumer advocacy at the Center for Digital Democracy, said to the New York Times. “Hopefully justice will be served.”
