(Reuters) – Dozens of U.S. states are suing Meta and Instagram on the grounds that they contribute to a youth mental health crisis through the addictive nature of their social media platforms.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, Calif., 33 states, including California and Illinois, said Meta, which also operates Facebook, has repeatedly misled the public about the considerable dangers of its platforms and consciously induced children and adolescents into addiction and compulsive use of social media.
“Research has shown that youth use of Meta social media platforms is associated with depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes,” the complaint stated.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits against social media companies on behalf of children and teens. ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube are also the targets of hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of children and school districts related to social media addiction.
“Meta has taken advantage of powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage and, ultimately, deceive young people and teenagers,” said the complaint. “His motive is profit.”
The suit seeks a variety of remedies, including substantial civil penalties. Meta said it has sought to keep young people safe online.
“We are disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, attorneys general chose this path,” Meta said in a statement.
Much of the focus on Meta comes from the release of documents in 2021 that showed the company had data showing that Instagram, which began as a photo-sharing app, was addictive and worsened body image issues for some teenage girls.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta strives to ensure that young people spend as much time as possible on social media, despite knowing that teenagers’ brains are susceptible to the need for approval over their content in the form of “likes” from other users. Meta publicly denied that its social media was harmful, according to the lawsuit.
The attorneys general of New Hampshire and Washington D.C. said they have filed related lawsuits in local courts. It is expected that seven other North American states will open similar cases this Tuesday, bringing the total number of states suing to 42.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Diane Bartz, David Shepardson and Nate Raymond)
Source: CNN Brasil
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