Meta has been sued by 41 states and the District of
Columbia for creating addictive features meant to hook Children and teenagers.
New York State's Attorney General specifically called out the
company saying it quote profited from children's pain.
General news, senior reporter Michelle Castillo
has the very latest Michelle. I'm so glad we're discussing this.
Tell us more about the lawsuit today.
Well, today's lawsuit,
Hannah focuses on the fact that meta knowingly created a business designed to make
teens and Children addicted to its apps and that includes Facebook and Instagram.
It also adds that medical
x data on minors under the age of 13 without their consent,
which is against federal law.
Now,
32 state attorney generals filed the lawsuit today and there is an
additional nine more attorney generals filing
similar lawsuits in their home jurisdictions.
So the lawsuits allege that meta created several addictive features
that harm youth mental health that includes algorithms that make you
addicted and content presentation formats such as
infinite role likes and social media and
other social comparison features which can determine
uh could be deterrent on mental health.
They're saying the incessant alerts those notifications to get on your
phone and visual filter features which can really affect body image.
In a statement, New York, Attorney General Letitia James,
who is one of the attorney generals, suing meta said, quote,
kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental
health and social media companies like meta are to blame.
She added the platform's lower self esteem and have helped lead to what she called
a national Youth mental health crisis and she said they must be held accountable.
So what are the State Generals hoping to get with these lawsuits? Michelle?
Well, it's really hard to say Hannah,
because there was a previous 48 state and FTC lawsuit against Meadow,
which was aimed at antitrust
or
anti competitive business practices
that was meant to have it divest from Instagram and whatsapp,
which actually never happened.
And in this case,
this case could lead to stricter rules
for meta against allowing youth on the platform
and limit data collection practices,
but it's highly unlikely that it's going to completely shut down the company.
And what has meta's response been?
Well,
meta has previously testified in Congress about the subject
and it has worked with various attorney generals.
It added in a statement,
we share the Attorney General's commitment to
providing teens with safe positive experiences online
and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families.
We're disappointed that instead of working
productively with companies across the industry to
create clear age appropriate standards for many apps that that teens use.
The attorney generals have chosen this path.
The company has developed over 30 tools to help young
people on its platform that includes more parental controls.
For those under the age of 16.
They have limited sensitive content that teens can
see and explore search and reels and they have
other features that encourage people to put down
the phone that includes stuff like quiet mode,
which you can use to
notifications
and take a break, which nudges people to stop using the platform.
If they've been on for too long,
there are also other resources offered when subject matter posts
may be triggering such as suicidal or body image content.
So
they say they've been doing enough and are willing to
work with legislators but do not deserve this lawsuit.