Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Meta: “Its Products Harm Children”

Attorneys for a 13-year-old Plaintiff have filed a class action lawsuit against social media conglomerate Meta Platforms, alleging its products – Facebook and Instagram – deliberately entice minors into a “harmful obsession” with social media. Meta is further accused of employing a business model scheme to purposely mislead the public and hide the harm posed to young users by its affiliated products.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California – where Meta has a “significant office presence” – the class action lawsuit requests over $5 billion in compensatory and injunctive relief for the Plaintiff and affected class members.

“Supplying harmful products to children is unlawful in every jurisdiction in this country, under both state and federal law and basic principles of products liability. And yet, that is what Meta does every hour of every day of every year,” the complaint reads.

Among the many allegations lodged in the complaint, Meta is accused of specifically targeting young users as a core part of its business strategy. Citing an internal email from a Meta product designer which summarized, “the [sic] young ones are the best ones,” Defendants are accused of carefully tracking young user engagement and weighing young user impact with any “substantive changes” to product design.

The complaint scrutinizes Meta’s development and implementation of addictive young user features, such as engagement-based newsfeeds (as opposed to chronological), interactive features (“Likes,” “Live,” and “Reels”), suggestions, content suppression, and “recommendation algorithms,” alleged to rely upon a psychological phenomenon known as variable reinforcement schedules.

Through variable reinforcement or reward schedules, “the unpredictable pattern of posts triggers a rush of dopamine, a neurotransmitter known as the “pleasure chemical,” in anticipation of social media content and stimuli.” From the complaint, “As this happens over and over, every day, the dopamine levels and balance in young user’s brains are becoming significantly altered by Meta’s recommendation algorithms.”

This strategic product deployment is alleged to ultimately culminate in user addiction, with young users falling most susceptible. The complaint contends Meta is well aware of these effects, having studied and “purposefully designed” their platforms to exploit these dopamine releases.

Meta is further accused of carefully studying the user habits of minors under 13 years of age. The Plaintiff has allegedly used Instagram since she was only ten years old, as Meta “never verified her age.”

As a result of daily usage, attorneys for the Plaintiff claim she has been subjected to violent and gory content, body insecurities, compulsive user tendencies, and negative effects on her emotions, relationships, and even education.

“Research shows that young people’s use of Meta’s products is associated with depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and other negative outcomes. Indeed, Meta’s own internal research demonstrates that use of Instagram results in such harms, and yet it has done nothing to lessen those harms and has failed to issue any meaningful warnings about its products or limit youth access.”

Beyond employed marketing strategies and failure to warn, attorneys for the Plaintiff and class contend Meta has violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) by collecting young users’ personal information.

Included among the nineteen alleged counts are strict liability (design defect, failure to warn), negligence, deceptive and unfair trade practices, unjust enrichment, and consumer fraud. Class members vary by count(s) and include minors who use or have used Instagram during the class period, pursuant to state jurisdiction.

A jury trial has been requested, in addition to explicit changes to Defendants’ practices and the order to, “disgorge [Defendants] of all revenues and profits wrongfully obtained.”

The plaintiff and class are represented by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP (“BSF”) attorneys David Boies, Sigrid S. McCawley, Jenny Kim, and Joshua M. Stein, Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP (“Labaton”) attorney Michael P. Canty, and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC (“Milberg”) attorneys Gary M. Klinger and Alexandra M. Honeycutt.

BSF Managing Partner, Sigrid S. McCawley commented, “For too long Meta has turned a blind eye to the harm it is causing kids with its addictive social media practices that place profits over the emotional and physical well-being of our young. We have filed this class action litigation on behalf of the harmed to force Meta to take real action to protect kids and become part of the solution to fix this very serious problem.”

“Milberg is proud to join the fight against Meta to protect children from social media addiction and depression.”

-Gary Klinger, Milberg Senior Partner

Labaton Partner Michael Canty shared similar sentiments. “It is important that we hold companies like Meta accountable for the impact their algorithms and marketing strategies have on young children. Labaton is proud to be working to promote children’s online well-being and safety.”

Following Meta’s takeover in 2012, more than 50 percent of teenagers in the United States use Instagram, with over 22 million U.S. teens logging on each day.