Dozens of US states, including California and New York, are suing Meta Platforms Inc. for harming young people鈥檚 mental health and contributing the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
filed by 33 states in federal court in California, claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents' consent, in violation of federal law. In addition, nine attorneys general are filing lawsuits in their respective states, bringing the total number of states taking action to 41 and Washington, D.C.
鈥淢eta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its social media platforms,鈥 the complaint says. 鈥淚t has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.鈥
The suits seek financial damages and restitution and an end to Meta's practices that are in violation of the law.
鈥淜ids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,鈥 said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement. 鈥淢eta has profited from children鈥檚 pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem."
In a statement, Meta said it shares 鈥渢he attorneys general鈥檚 commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檙e 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,鈥 the company added.
The broad-ranging federal suit is the result of an investigation led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Vermont. It follows damning newspaper reports, first by in the fall of 2021, based on the Meta's own research that found that the company knew about the harms Instagram can cause teenagers 鈥 especially teen girls 鈥 when it comes to mental health and body image issues. One internal study cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.
Following the first reports, a , including The Associated Press, published their own findings based on leaked documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen, who has testified before Congress and a British parliamentary committee about what she found.
鈥淢eta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to boost corporate profits,鈥 said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. 鈥淲ith today鈥檚 lawsuit, we are drawing the line.鈥
The use of social media among teens is nearly universal in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. ages 13 to 17 in the U.S. report using a social media platform, with about a third saying they use social media 鈥渁lmost constantly,鈥 according to the Pew Research Center.
To comply with federal regulation, social media companies ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms 鈥 but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents鈥 consent, and many younger kids have social media accounts. The states' complaint says Meta knowingly violated this law, the Children鈥檚 Online Privacy Protection Act, by collecting data on children without informing and getting permission from their parents.
Other measures social platforms have taken to address concerns about children鈥檚 mental health are also easily circumvented. For instance, TikTok recently introduced a default for users under 18. But once the limit is reached, minors can simply enter a passcode to keep watching. TikTok, Snapchat and other social platforms that have also been blamed for contributing to the youth mental health crisis are not part of Tuesday's lawsuit.
Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb wouldn鈥檛 comment on whether they鈥檙e also looking at TikTok or Snapchat. For now they鈥檙e focusing on the Meta empire of Facebook and Instagram, he said.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e the worst of the worst when it comes to using technology to addict teenagers to social media, all in the furtherance of putting profits over people.鈥
In May, U.S. called on tech companies, parents and caregivers to take 鈥渋mmediate action to protect kids now" from the harms of social media.
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Associated Press Writers Michael Casey, Michael Goldberg, Susan Haigh, Maysoon Khan and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this story.
