A coalition made up of 41 US states and the District of Columbia filed legal proceedings against Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, on Tuesday (24).
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States claim that the social networks Instagram and Facebook are addictive and harmful to children. These lawsuits represent the most significant initiative to date by state authorities to combat the impact of media outlets on the mental health of minors and to pressure Meta to make changes to its platforms due to the risks they allege they pose. for younger users.
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Thirty-three states, including Colorado and California, filed a joint lawsuit in federal court for the Northern District of California, while other attorneys general in Washington D.C. and eight states filed separate lawsuits in federal, state or local courts. These lawsuits come as a result of an investigation carried out in 2021, which looked at several ways in which the tech giant contributes to mental health problems among young people. In 2021, “The Wall Street Journal” released an internal report that revealed how Instagram was worsening the perception of users, especially children and teenagers, regarding their own bodies, and highlighted that the company was aware of this problem.
Since then, states such as Arkansas and Utah have passed laws that prohibit children under 13 from accessing social media and require teens under 18 to obtain parental consent to access these sites. In California, in turn, laws were passed that require technology companies to evaluate their platforms for possible risks and problems.