Minnesota is among 33 states suing the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. The 33 states in federal court in California claimed 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.
The federal suit claims Meta knows it's platforms' algorithms and design features entice and addict kids, contributing to harmful mental health issues like depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorders, and inadequate sleep.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says personal responsibility when it comes to social media use is one thing, but this is an entirely different situation.
"People in lab coats, testing the brain, studying the brain, trying to figure out how to hook you, you can't ignore those either," says Ellison to WCCO Radio's Laura Oakes.
Ellison says they're not trying to prevent access to Facebook and Instagram, but want Meta to institute guardrails to make their products less addictive. He says Meta's practices have fueled a mental health crisis.
"They have fueled what the U.S. Surgeon General considers to be a youth mental health crisis," explains the Attorney General. "And it's devastated people, and damaged people, and we believe has induced kids to take their own lives."
The suits seek financial damages and restitution and an end to Meta’s practices that are in violation of the law.
“Meta 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,” the complaint says. “It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.”
In a statement, Meta said it shares “the attorneys 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 the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” the company added.
The use of social media among teens is nearly universal in the U.S. and many other parts of the world. Almost all teens ages 13 to 17 in the U.S. report using a social media platform, with about a third saying they use social media “almost constantly,” according to the Pew Research Center.
To comply with federal regulation, social media companies ban kids under 13 from signing up to their platforms — but children have been shown to easily get around the bans, both with and without their parents’ consent, and many younger kids have social media accounts. The states’ complaint says Meta knowingly violated this law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, by collecting data on children without informing and getting permission from their parents.
