Forty-one states and D.C. are suing Meta, alleging that the tech giant harms children by building addictive features into Instagram and Facebook — legal actions that represent the most significant effort by state enforcers to tackle the impact of social media on children’s mental health.
States such as Arkansas and Utah have passed laws banning those younger than 13 from social media and requiring teens younger than 18 to get parental consent to access the sites. California, meanwhile, passed rules requiring tech companies to vet their products for risks and build safety and privacy guardrails into its tools. In lieu of federal legislation, parents and school districts have also taken up the matter, filing lawsuits accusing Meta, TikTok and other platforms of worsening the nation’s youth mental health crisis and deepening anxiety, depression and body image issues among students.
State and federal enforcers for years have scrutinized tech companies’ handling of children’s private personal information, at times leveling huge fines against social media companies. The FTC and New York state in 2019 reached a $170 million settlement with Google-owned YouTube over charges that the company illegally collected data from users younger than 13.
