A lawsuit brought by California and more than 30 state attorneys general against Meta Platforms Inc. for allegedly enticing children onto Instagram and Facebook with addictive features will likely accelerate an already roiling national debate over how internet companies should limit access by minors to harmful content.
The lawsuit alleges that, in addition to harming young users’ mental health, Meta violated federal children’s privacy law by failing to get parental consent to collect data of users younger than 13. Instead, the company relied on what the state attorneys general are calling a faulty age-gating process to keep young users off the platforms, all while turning a blind eye to evidence of significant numbers of too-young users
State attorneys general argued that Meta could have used “feasible alternative age verification methods” such as “requiring young users to submit student IDs upon registration,” according to the complaint filed on Oct. 24 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
Discover more from Justice News247
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.