Meta must face court over teenage social media addiction, judge rules

The social media giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, had argued that federal law blocked some of the claims

Facebook’s parent company must face lawsuits across the United States accusing it of fuelling teenagers’ social media addictions.
A federal judge in California rejected Meta’s attempts to throw out claims made by states in two separate lawsuits. 
The social media giant, which also owns Instagram, had argued that federal law blocked some of the claims.
A group of more than 40 states had come together to sue Meta, accusing the company of being deliberately addictive and fuelling a mental health crisis amongst the American youth. 
Florida’s attorney general also filed a similar lawsuit, alleging that the firm had used powerful algorithms to ensnare and addict teens. 
The states are calling for court injunctions against Meta’s alleged illegal business practices and are seeking unspecified monetary damages. 
Oakland-based District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez allowed their case to go on largely intact, putting brief limits on what the states could pursue in court.
The judge also rejected Meta’s motion to dismiss some claims over social media addiction brought by individual plaintiffs. 
A Meta spokesman said: “We’ve developed numerous tools to support parents and teens, and we recently announced that we’re significantly changing the Instagram experience for tens of millions of teens with new Teen Accounts, a protected experience for teens that automatically limits who can contact them and the content they see.
“We believe the evidence will demonstrate our commitment to supporting young people.”
The lawsuits are a result of the coalition of states researching the impacts of social media on children’s mental health for over two years. 
Accusations that Meta was designing addictive products were thrust into the limelight in 2021 when whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed internal research that allegedly showed the company had knowledge that its products at times exacerbated mental health issues among some teenagers. 
Both legislators and regulators responded to the revelations by pushing for new protections for children online.
But in some states those guardrails were challenged in courts by industry groups arguing the rules violated users’ constitutional rights.
A lawsuit filed by the state of Kentucky also revealed that Chinese-owned TikTok had conducted similar research suggesting the platform’s bosses were aware of its alleged risks to children.
Court documents said the research found children were particularly vulnerable to the video-sharing app’s algorithms and excessive use could lead to mental health issues. 
“As expected, across most engagement metrics, the younger the user, the better the performance,” an 2019 internal company report said, according to the TikTok lawsuit.
A TikTok spokesman called the claims “inaccurate and misleading.”