California and other states on Tuesday sued Facebook parent company Meta over allegations that it “designed and implemented harmful features” on the main social network and its platform Instagram. Our two-pronged investigation has reached a single conclusion: Meta has harmed our children and teens and cultivated addiction to increase corporate profits, California Atty. General Rob Bonta said in a statement. With today’s lawsuit we draw the line. We must protect our children and we will not back down from this fight.”

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Northern California, alleges that the social media giant violated consumer protection laws and a federal law aimed at protecting the privacy of children under 13. Bonta co-led a bipartisan coalition of 33 attorneys general who filed the federal lawsuit against Meta. Eight attorneys general are also filing lawsuits against Meta in state courts on Tuesday, according to Bonta’s office.

In 2021, a bipartisan group of attorneys general, including from California, Tennessee and Nebraska, announced they were investigating Metas’ promotion of its social media app Instagram to children and youth. Advocacy groups, lawmakers and even parents have criticized Meta, claiming the platform has not done enough to combat content about eating disorders, suicide and other potential harms.

As part of the investigation, the Attorney General watched

ways

Meta’s strategies for

becomes convincing

young people spend more time on the platform. The lawsuit alleges that Meta has failed to address the platform’s harmful effects on young people.

Scrutiny of Meta’s potential harm to young people’s mental health intensified in 2021 after Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, made tens of thousands of internal company documents public. Some of those papers include research showing that Facebook is toxic for teenage girls, exacerbating body image issues and suicidal thoughts, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2021. Meta said her research was mischaracterized, and teens also reported that Instagram gives them a better felt about other issues. such as loneliness and sadness.

That year, social media company executives, including Instagram head Adam Mosseri, tested before Congress. Instagram subsequently halted development of a children’s version of the app and introduced more controls so parents can limit the amount of time for teens

use the app spend on it

. Social media apps like Instagram require users to be at least 13 years old but have children

So

song about their age to access the platform.

The photo and video sharing app is Instagram

Calm

popular among American teenagers, according to a Pew Research Center study published this year. About 62% of teens reported using Instagram in 2022. Google-owned YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat are also commonly used by teens.

The amount of time teens spend on social media is a growing concern, especially as platforms use algorithms to recommend content they think users would like to watch. In 2022, attorneys general across the country also began investigating TikTok’s potential harm to young people.