Yikes!
Breitbart headlines: https://www.breitbart.com/
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Sued by 42 States for Harming Young People with Addictive Facebook, Instagram Features
The story reports:
“Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, formerly Facebook, is being sued by 42 U.S. states in multiple lawsuits accusing the tech giant of harming young people’s mental health with addictive Facebook and Instagram features. The states, however, have not filed a similar complaint against the Chinese-owned app TikTok, which has shown itself to be a danger to young people.
In one lawsuit, 33 states accuse Meta of knowingly designing Facebook and Instagram features that addict children and teens to the platforms. In addition to the 33 states, nine other attorneys general are filing suits in their states, bringing the total number of states taking action against Meta to 42, according to a reportby Associated Press.
The complaint, filed against Meta Platforms Inc. in federal court in California, claims the company consistently collects data on children under 13 years of age, without their parents’ consent, which is a violation of federal law. It also accuses the tech giant of damaging young people’s mental health and contributing to the youth mental health crisis.
The lawsuit states, in part:
‘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. It has concealed the ways in which these platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children.’”
One has to feel for parents whose social media skills are less than sophisticated yet have to cope in some way with understanding exactly what is going on when their child logs onto Facebook or something else and is quietly being used to vacuum up their private information.
This lawsuit, one suspects, will be bigger in its effects than is now understood. The world has changed – and changed big time. And as with all tech changes in human history, understanding the effects of that tech change – on both adults and children – is becoming a requirement.
Keep your eye on this.