Since at least 2019, Meta refused to intentionally close most accounts belonging to children under 13 while collecting their personal information without their parents’ consent, a newly unsealed court document from an ongoing federal lawsuit alleges. against the social media giant.
Attorneys general in 33 states in the United States accused Meta of receiving more than one million reports of users under the age of 13 on Instagram from parents, friends and members of the online community between early 2019 and mid-2023. However, “Meta deactivated only a fraction of those accounts,” the complaint states.
The federal lawsuit seeks court orders prohibiting Meta from practices that the attorneys general allege violate the law. Civil penalties could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars as Meta allegedly hosts millions of teen and child users. Most states ask for between US$1,000 and US$50,000 in fines per violation.
Violation of privacy
According to the 54-count lawsuit, Meta violated a number of state consumer protection laws, as well as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), which prohibits companies from collecting personal information from children under 13 without the consent of their parents. Meta allegedly failed to comply with COPPA with respect to Facebook and Instagram, even though “Meta’s own records reveal that the composition of Instagram’s audience includes millions of children under the age of 13,” and that “hundreds of thousands of teenage users spend more than five hours a day on Instagram,” the court document states.
A Meta product designer wrote in an internal email that “young people are the best,” adding that “you want to attract people to your service, young and early,” according to the lawsuit.
«Instagram’s terms of use prohibit users under the age of 13 (or older in certain countries) and we have measures to remove these accounts when we identify them. However, verifying the age of people online is a complex challenge for the industry,” Meta told CNN in a statement on Sunday. «Many people – particularly those under 13 years old – do not have an identity document, for example. That’s why Meta supports federal legislation requiring app stores to obtain parental approval whenever their children under 16 download apps. With this approach, parents and teenagers will not have to provide hundreds of individual apps with sensitive information, such as their ID, to verify their age.
Fuente: CNN