BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado has joined dozens of other states in a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the social media giant of violating multiple state and federal laws and following “deceptive acts and practices.”
The lawsuit particularly focuses on the way that Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, impact teens and children.
The suit claims Meta has illegally collected data from children under the age of 13, without parental permission, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
"The company knowingly designed and deployed harmful features" on Instagram to purposely addict children and teens, while assuring the public that use of the platform was safe for young people," Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a press release. “Just like Big Tobacco and vaping companies have done in years past, Meta chose to maximize its profits at the expense of public health, specifically harming the health of the youngest among us. We will work tirelessly to hold the company accountable for the harm it has and continues to inflict.”
According to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, constant app notifications and features like infinite scroll push users into “rabbit holes," which keep young people using the Meta platforms.
The lawsuit claims that Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, have “profoundly altered the psychological and social realities of young Americans.”
The federal complaint asks for the court to prohibit Meta from violating the law. Many states request unspecified financial penalties as well.
Scripps News
Dozens of states sue Meta for 'addictive features' targeting kids
Meta sent Denver7 a statement, which said:
We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens 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.
Annie Margaret, who works as a Teaching Assistant Professor at the Atlas Institute of the University of Colorado at Boulder, studies the impact social media has on adolescent brains.
“My research actually started with college students. And so, I would have them do a four week social media challenge I call it, or cleanse, where they're trying to cut back their social media use, and they would see massive benefits from this in terms of their ability for focused attention, their presence with the current moment, their life satisfaction, lowered stress, all kinds of things," Margaret said.
The addictive nature of social media becomes problematic when it comes to the adolescent brain, according to Margaret.
“People 25 and older have a fully developed prefrontal cortex, things like executive function, impulse control, risk analysis," Margaret explained. “When you look at adolescence, younger folks, 12 to 16-ish, they have a rapidly developing limbic system. So that system is in charge of emotions, and particularly social cognition or understanding of where we stand socially. And their prefrontal cortex, which does these other functions I was just describing, is not as developed. And so you're in this stage where you have this developmental mismatch between one area of the brain that really cares about social information. And another area of the brain that does risk analysis, impulse control, delayed gratification, not developed yet.”
Margaret said combining that stage of development with social media platforms that have 24/7 access to social information is incredibly addictive for young people.
Her research has included several interviews with young people about their experiences with social media. Margaret said in many of those interviews, her subjects are aware social media does not make them feel good about themselves.
“Ask a smoker if they want to still be smoking cigarettes? And of course they don't," Margaret said.
She acknowledged that in some instances, social media can be supportive for certain users, but she was still hopeful when she learned of the lawsuit against Meta.
“I'm glad that there's going to finally be a little bit of reckoning for what's happened here," Margaret said. “Any corporation with that level of power and influence deserves to be questioned, particularly in this instance, where there is evidence demonstrating that they knew well ahead of time that their products were causing harm, there were changes that could have been made, and to the algorithm, for example, that were not made. Right, they deserve to be held accountable for that, much in the same way 'Big Tobacco' and other entities have been held accountable.”
Margaret believes the lawsuit has the potential to help with a ripple effect of blame that has happened as a result of youth on social media.
“What really breaks my heart is seeing the way the teachers and the parents feel so awful. They feel like failures, because of this thing that isn't, they didn't create it, and isn't their fault at all. And so I would love to see that, in terms of justice, for that burden of guilt to be lifted from the parents and educators and placed where it is appropriate," Margaret said.
She does not believe social media is too far gone to repair either. Instead, she believes there needs to be accountability of tech companies combined with a shift in education that focuses more on the emotional regulation, mindfulness, executive function and impulse control needed for young people to exist in a digital landscape with constant stimulus.
Maddie Freeman is currently a senior at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and said she started struggling with mental health issues when she was in sixth grade. The mental health issues persisted until her high school graduation.
“I would definitely say that social media contributed to that. I would say I was having a lot of self-confidence and body dysmorphia issues," Freeman said. “The depression just came in pretty quick and fast and sixth grade, and I didn't really know where it came from. I thought that I was like, the only person that was experiencing that.”
Throughout the course of her life, Freeman said she has lost 10 friends to suicide. She does not attribute the suicides solely to social media, but believes the constant pressure surrounding social media plays a role in mental health struggles.
“I would say that social media was making it harder to deal with depression and anxiety. And so, I think that contributed to the overall mental health crisis, but not necessarily the individual cases of people that I had lost," Freeman said. “I just didn't really know what was going to change. I just felt like this was just going to continue happening. That's when I decided to take action. I really felt like I needed to use all the pain and all the energy I was feeling and turn it towards something productive and positive.”
Freeman founded the No Social Media November Challenge, which is a 30-day tech detox initiative. She believes this year around 30 schools are participating, but individuals can take the challenge too.
"I felt that if students could have the option to take action and take a break from social media, that it would drastically improve their mental health," Freeman explained. “It's improved my mental health. This is the fourth year I've done the detox and it's so helpful, and a lot of my friends have gained a lot from it as well.”
Freeman said the first time she personally took the challenge, it was difficult. Now, she says it is refreshing.
“We actually have a sample checklist of different activities people can do during the month on our website. We really empower people to try new things and try connecting with people authentically in different ways," Freeman said. “It really sparks the creativity when you have a little bit of boredom.”
After learning of the lawsuit against Meta, Freeman was excited.
"This has clearly impacted a lot of people, specifically young people, and not much has changed," Freeman said. “Meta has been very slow to react and they've repeatedly, time and time again, put profits over people, and specifically young people.”
Freeman and NoSo November are launching their biggest campaign yet on Wednesday, October 25. The goal is to put pressure on Meta by gathering enough people for a social media detox that the company notices a decrease in the time users spend on platforms.
The 2023 Campaign has posts curated that can be downloaded for different social media apps, explaining to other users why individuals are taking a break from the platforms.
"We want Meta to know that this is something that young people care about and that we really want them to create a platform with our mental health in mind," Freeman said.
In the same email as their statement, Meta provided further information on the subject, which in their own words said:
- Since this investigation has begun, Meta has engaged in a meaningful dialogue with the attorneys general regarding the ways Meta already works to support young people on its platforms, and how Meta is continuously working to improve young peoples’ experiences.
- The issues identified by the attorneys general lend themselves to cross-industry standards for young people and the need to work with companies across the industry in addressing these topics. Instagram is one of the top social media platforms young people use today, but other platforms are just as popular — and in some cases more popular — for teens. See research [news.gallup.com] from Gallup last week pointing to TikTok, YouTube and Snap as examples of the other most popular platforms. That makes it particularly disappointing that the attorneys general have chosen to single out one company, instead of taking the opportunity to work productively across the industry, especially if their motivations are, as they say, to address the impacts of social media at large.
- As a company, Meta has every commercial incentive to try to give the maximum number of people as much of a positive experience as possible. Meta is a business and makes profit, but the idea that Meta does so at the expense of people’s safety or wellbeing misunderstands where Meta's own long-term commercial interests lie. The growth of people or advertisers using Meta's apps means nothing if people feel unsafe or that they cannot express themselves on the platforms - they will simply stop using them and advertising on them. That’s why Meta takes steps to keep people safe even if it impacts the bottom line, like investing more than $20 billion to enhance safety and security since 2016.
- While Meta shares the attorneys general’s concern around teen mental health trends in the US, it's also important to recognize the complexity of mental health and the many issues teens struggle within their daily lives, such as growing academic pressure, substance use, rising income inequality and limited access to public mental healthcare. The cause of these mental health trends is still being investigated, but some, including the American Psychological Association [apa.org], have acknowledged that social media can play a positive role in young people’s psychological development. To support teens, we need to look at the bigger picture and examine the many issues they struggle with in their daily lives, and we need to recognize that social media is a place many teens come to find support and community when they're struggling.
- Contrary to the allegations made, Meta developed over 30 tools to support teens on the apps, and to make it simple for parents to shape their family’s online experiences, and Meta sees that they work. Meta also prohibits users under the age of 13 on Instagram, and does not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. Examples of Meta's work to support teens and families include:
- Setting teens' accounts (under 16 in the US) to private [about.instagram.com] when they join; limiting the amount of potentially sensitive content they can see in Explore, Search, and Reels.
- Age verification technology [about.instagram.com] to help ensure teens are in the right experiences for their age.
- Parental supervision tools [about.instagram.com] that let parents and guardians set time limits on their teen's app use, and see information like who their teen reports or blocks.
- Sharing expert resources [about.instagram.com] when someone searches for, or posts, content related to suicide, self-injury, eating disorders, or body image issues
- Showing teens reminders to take regular breaks from Instagram [about.fb.com] and turn on tools like Quiet Mode and Take A Break for teens, designed to help them be intentional with their time online and manage the time they spend and the notifications they receive.
- We also see that these features work: Over the course of a given week, 44% of teens who see a 'Take a Break' reminder on Instagram will respect it at least once by leaving Instagram for 10 minutes or more.
- The body of research on social media and negative mental health is not conclusive, nor does it support the suggestion that social media use causes teen mental health issues.
- Meta also knows that how people use social media matters [osf.io], and can influence their overall experience, which is why Meta has so many features, like Quiet Mode and Take a Break, that encourage teens to take regular breaks from social media and let parents set scheduled times they can use social media. These are intended to help teens be intentional and set thoughtful boundaries about their time online.
Meta ended their statement by saying, "we need to look at the bigger picture and examine the many issues teens struggle with in their daily lives, and we need to recognize that social media is a place many teens come to find support and community when they're struggling."
