© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Meta Platforms business group is seen in Brussels, Belgium, December 6, 2022. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
By Jonathan Stempel, Diane Bartz and Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -Dozens of US states are suing Meta Platforms (NASDAQ and its Instagram unit, accusing them of fueling a youth mental health crisis by making their social media platforms addictive.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, 33 states, including California and New York, said Meta repeatedly misled the public about the dangers of its platforms and knowingly lured young children and teenagers into a addictive and compulsive use of social networks. Meta also operates Facebook.
“Meta has leveraged powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage, and ultimately entrap youth and adolescents,” the complaint says. “Their motive is profit.”
Children have long been an attractive demographic for large companies hoping to attract them as consumers at a young age, when they can be most impressionable and solidify brand loyalty. For Meta, younger consumers can help attract more advertisers who hope children will buy their products as they grow older.
But the states noted that research has associated children’s use of Meta social media platforms with “depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes.”
Meta said she was “disappointed” with the lawsuit.
“Instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, attorneys general have chosen this path,” the company said.
Eight other US states and Washington, DC will file similar lawsuits against Meta on Tuesday, bringing to 42 the total number of authorities taking action against the Menlo Park, California-based company.
The cases are the latest in a series of legal actions against social media companies on behalf of children and teenagers.
Meta, ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s (NASDAQ:) YouTube already face hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of children and school districts over the addictive nature of social media.
In Tuesday’s cases, Meta could face civil penalties of $1,000 to $50,000 for each violation of various state laws, an amount that could add up quickly given the millions of children and teens who use Instagram.
Meta shares fell 0.6% in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.
‘CULTIVATE ADDICTION’
Much of the focus on Meta came from a whistleblower’s release of documents in 2021 that showed the company knew that Instagram, which began as a photo-sharing app, was addictive and worsened body image issues for some teenage girls.
The 33-state lawsuit alleges that Meta has gone out of its way to ensure that young people spend as much time as possible on social media despite knowing that they are susceptible to the need for approval in the form of “likes” from other users about their content.
“Meta has been harming our children and teens, cultivating addiction to increase corporate profits,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose state includes Meta’s headquarters.
The company was also accused of violating a law prohibiting the collection of data from children under 13 and misleadingly denying that its social media was harmful.
“Meta failed to disclose that its algorithms were designed to capitalize on young users’ dopamine responses and create an addictive cycle of engagement,” he added.
Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter that plays a role in feelings of pleasure.
The complaint said Meta’s refusal to accept responsibility extended to the company’s effort last year to distance itself from the suicide of a 14-year-old girl in the United Kingdom after she was exposed on Instagram to content about suicide and self-harm.
A coroner rejected a Meta executive’s claim that such content was “safe” for children and found that the girl likely binged on harmful content that normalized the depression she had felt before her suicide.
The states alleged that Meta is seeking to expand its harmful practices into virtual reality, including its Horizon Worlds platform and WhatsApp and Messenger apps.
State officials are trying to plug holes left by the U.S. Congress’s failure to pass new online protections for children despite years of discussions.
Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said the whistleblower’s disclosures showed Meta knew how Facebook and Instagram were harming children.
“It is very clear that the decisions made by social media platforms, like Meta, are part of what is causing mental health damage, physical health damage and threats that we cannot ignore,” he said.
