States are accusing Meta of fueling the youth mental health crisis

Activists of Facebook, the Child-Adversarial Platform, and the State of the Civil Rights in the U.S.

The legal actions state that Meta deceived the public about the harms of Facebook and how they can be done to children.

Soon after, a group of attorneys general from more than 40 states wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive. They accused Facebook of failing to protect the welfare of children on its platforms, and urged it to abandon its plans to launch an app for kids.

Regulators have also tried to hold social media companies accountable for possible harms to young people. A teenager killed herself after seeing thousands of images of self-injury on the platform, and a coroner in Britain concluded that it had contributed to the death.

More than 30 states joined a federal suit with Arizona, New York, West Virginia and others against Meta. The attorneys general of Tennessee and Washington, D.C. filed legal actions on Tuesday.

Collectively, more than 40 states paint a picture of a company that brushed aside safety concerns about its products in order to addict as many young people as possible as a way of juicing its profits.

Section 230, a law that’s protected the tech industry, doesn’t protect social media companies from being held liable for user-generated content.

Legal experts say Meta is likely to use Section 230 as a defense, but the state prosecutors are trying to get around the law by filing suits that claim violations of consumer protection and child safety laws.

Kosseff states that courts are more willing to conclude Section 230 is not a defense in lawsuits arising from claims about product Design though the line is not always clear.

On the Apps and Services Platforms that Users Use to Make Sense of their Body: A Comment by Meta CEO Nkechi Nneji

Nkechi Nneji said that Meta shares the commitment of the states to providing teens with a safe, positive experience online. The company provides a lot of support to young users 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,” Nneji said.

In one internal finding the paper surfaced in its 2021 Facebook Files investigation, 32% of teen girls who felt bad about their bodies said using Instagram made them feel worse.