The court documents also state that Meta “routinely” collected children’s personal data and information without any parental permission.
Social media giant Meta that owns popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram is now in the dock with recent court documents revealing that Meta knowingly took advantage of weaknesses in the brains of young users to make its social media platforms more addictive for kids. Not just that, the documents also state that Meta “routinely” collected children’s personal data and information without any parental permission.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have accessed the unredacted version of a legal complaint filed in a US court by a coalition of 33 US States that shows that the social media giant sought to engineer its products to capitalise on the areas of youth psychology that render teens “predisposed to impulse, peer pressure, and potentially harmful risky behaviour”. The complaint further says that Meta has intentionally built Facebook and Instagram with addictive features that harm young users.
AN OPEN SECRET
The complaint states that, “Within the company, Meta’s actual knowledge that millions of Instagram users are under the age of 13 is an ‘open secret’ that is routinely documented, rigorously analysed, confirmed and zealously protected from disclosure to the public.”
The reports by the international publications cite internal Meta communications and employee chats along with presentations made by Meta employees and emails sent by them, which reveal that Meta was not only in the know but also intentionally designed its products to make them addictive for teenagers and young adults.
According to The Wall Street Journal report, an internal presentation by Meta from 2020 stated how “Teens are insatiable when it comes to ‘feel good’ dopamine effects,” and according to the unredacted filing, the presentation described the company’s existing product as already well-suited to providing the sort of stimuli that trigger the potent neurotransmitter. “And every time one of our teen users finds something unexpected their brains deliver them a dopamine hit,” the presentation stated.
‘TWEENS LIE ABOUT AGE’
According to the complaint filed by the States, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said in an internal company chat in November 2021 that, “Tweens want access to Instagram, and they lie about their age to get it now.” But just a month later, in a Senate testimony, Mosseri said, “If a child is under the age of 13, they are not permitted on Instagram.”
Concerns about well-being, particularly among younger teens, were acknowledged internally within Meta. Instagram’s head of policy highlighted that various stakeholders, including researchers, experts, and parents, believe that Instagram is inherently unsuitable for younger teens due to their differing cognitive and emotional abilities compared to older teens.
Karina Newton, the Head of Policy at Instagram, in May 2021 sent an email that stated, “It’s not ‘regulators’ or ‘critics’ who think Instagram is unhealthy for young teens — it’s everyone from researchers and academic experts to parents. The blueprint of the app is inherently not designed for an age group that don’t have the same cognitive and emotional skills that older teens do.”