Lawsuit Accuses Meta of Designing Platforms to Exploit Teen Psychology

Lawsuit Accuses Meta of Designing Platforms to Exploit Teen Psychology

Lawsuit Accuses Meta , of Designing Platforms , to Exploit Teen Psychology.

Lawsuit Accuses Meta , of Designing Platforms , to Exploit Teen Psychology.

'The Guardian' reports that a legal complaint accuses Meta of purposefully engineering its platforms to make them more addictive to children.

'The Guardian' reports that a legal complaint accuses Meta of purposefully engineering its platforms to make them more addictive to children.

The newly unsealed documents also accuse the Instagram and Facebook parent company of knowingly allowing underage users to open and hold accounts.

The complaint is at the center of a lawsuit filed by the attorney generals of 33 states against Meta.

The lawsuit alleges that the company knew that it had received millions of complaints about underage Instagram users, only a fraction of which it ever disabled.

The legal filing also cites internal Meta documents that suggests the number of underage users was an "open secret" at the company.

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According to the filing, Meta received over 402,000 reports of underage users in 2021, while only 164,000 were “disabled for potentially being under the age of 13.”.

The complaint includes accusations that Meta knowingly created its platform to be addictive and even harmful to children.

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'The Guardian' reports that company documents cited in the lawsuit describes Meta officials acknowledging that products exploit shortcomings in youthful psychology.

This includes a May 2020 internal presentation titled "teen fundamentals" which focused on the vulnerabilities of the young brain that product development could exploit.

Meta released a statement calling the complaint a misrepresentation of the company's efforts over the past decade to create a safe online space for teens.

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Meta released a statement calling the complaint a misrepresentation of the company's efforts over the past decade to create a safe online space for teens.