A coalition of state attorneys general is suing the parent company of Facebook and Instagram over the perceived impacts of social media platforms on children’s mental health.
Michigan is among 33 states that filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. earlier this week in federal court, claiming that Meta has profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of a generation of young Americans with its platforms. social media that attract, engage and ultimately entrap young people. and adolescents.
Among the accusations listed in the 233-page lawsuit is that the social media company misled the public about the dangers of its social media platforms and ignored the harm they caused to the mental health of its young people users.
In doing so, Meta engaged, and continues to engage, in deceptive and illegal conduct in violation of state and federal law, reads the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Oct. 24, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. .
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said documents made public by former Meta employees show the company placed its desire to profit from teen engagement on its platforms above demographics, their physical and mental health.
“I stand firmly with my colleagues in asserting that Meta misrepresented the addictive nature of social media and violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, for which it should be held accountable,” said Nessel.
A statement from Nessels’ office said the lawsuit relies on confidential documents that are not yet publicly available. However, documents made public by former Meta employees detail how Meta profited by deliberately making its platforms addictive for children and teens, through features like infinite scrolling and near-constant alerts.
Meta knew that these addictive traits were harming young people’s physical and mental health, including compromising their ability to get enough sleep, but failed to disclose the damage, nor did it make meaningful changes to minimize the harm, we read in the press release. Instead, they claimed their platforms were safe for young users.
Elizabeth Eingraham works as a children’s services manager for the Montcalm Care Network, a resource for community mental health services in West Michigan. Asked this week about the lawsuit against Meta and allegations about the harms of social media on adolescent mental health, she said it’s important to remember that social media itself is not evil.
The problem lies in how teens use platforms, what they watch, and other risk factors for their mental health.
If they see healthy things or communities with like interests, those kinds of things can be positive, she said. But when they view content, it’s harmful; when they have other risk factors, like if they already have mental health issues, they can experience discrimination, body shaming, all sorts of things that can happen because that’s what they see and with a lack of guidance.
Eingraham encourages parents to be aware of what their children watch and how they use technology and social media. She said it was important to monitor, supervise and educate on the harmful aspects of these platforms, as well as keep up with the constant evolution of media platforms.
Technology is always one step ahead of parents, she said. And it doesn’t go away; it’s just going to continue to change and evolve and the young people of this generation have grown up with that.
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