Lawsuit Alleges Instagram Causes Mental Health Issues in Children Across US States

(Reuters) – Dozens of U.S. states are suing Meta Platforms and its Instagram unit, accusing them of contributing to a mental health crisis among young people through the addictive nature of their social media platforms.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Oakland, California, 33 states, including California and Illinois, said Meta, which also operates Facebook, has repeatedly misled the public about the significant dangers of its platforms and knowingly hooked young children and teenagers. and compulsive use of social media.

“Studies have shown that young people’s use of Meta’s social media platforms is associated with depression, anxiety, insomnia, disruption in education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of lawsuits filed against social media companies on behalf of children and youth. ByteDance’s TikTok and Google’s YouTube are also the subject of hundreds of social media addiction lawsuits filed on behalf of children and school districts.

“Meta has harnessed powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage and ultimately ensnare youth and teenagers,” the complaint states. “Its motive is profit.”

The suit seeks various remedies, including substantial civil penalties.

Meta said that they tried to make young people safe online.

“We are disappointed that instead of working productively with companies in the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps used by teenagers, lawyers have chosen this path,” Meta said in a statement.

Meta’s stock fell slightly after the states’ lawsuit was announced, falling 0.3%.

Much of the focus on Meta stems from documents released in 2021 that showed Meta had data showing that Instagram, which began as a photo-sharing app, was addictive and exacerbating body image issues in some teenage girls.

The lawsuit alleges that Meta seeks to ensure that young people spend as much time as possible on social media, even though they know that teenage brains are susceptible to the need for approval from other users’ “likes” of their content. Meta fraudulently denied publicly that its social media was harmful, according to the suit.

“As recently as 2020, Meta continued to deliberately design its platforms to manipulate the dopamine responses of its young users in order to maximize time spent on its platforms. Meta failed to disclose that its algorithms were designed to exploit the dopamine responses of young users and create an addictive engagement cycle,” the complaint said.

Dopamine is a type of neurotransmitter that affects feelings of pleasure.

According to the lawsuit, Meta also violated a law that prohibits the collection of information from children under the age of 13.

The state’s actions are aimed at filling holes left by the inability of the US Congress to pass new online protections for children despite years of debate.

The lawsuit also alleged that Meta sought to extend what states say are harmful practices into virtual reality, including Meta’s Horizon Worlds platform and messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger.

“Meta has harmed our children and teenagers and fostered addiction to increase corporate profits,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

The attorneys general of New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., both said they have filed related lawsuits in local courts. Seven more states are expected to file similar lawsuits Tuesday, bringing the total number of states that have filed suit to 42.

The Menlo Park, Calif., company and other social media companies already face hundreds of lawsuits filed on behalf of children and school districts that make similar