Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced that his office filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms Inc. (Meta), the company that owns and operates Facebook and Instagram, for its harmful business practices targeting children. The lawsuit, backed by a broad, bipartisan coalition of 33 states, was filed on Tuesday in the federal district court for the Northern District of California. In their lawsuit, Raoul and the attorneys general allege that Meta’s business model, which seeks to capture as much user time and attention as possible to sell advertising, has targeted youth, including teenagers and even younger children, in ways that take advantage of them. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the second-leading cause of death among youth between the ages of 10 and 14. During the decade since Instagram’s rise in popularity, the CDC reported that the number of high school students who experience feelings of persistent sadness and hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts and ideation increased by 40 percent. In that same time period, there was a 30 percent increase in the rate of high school girls who attempted suicide.

Raoul and the coalition allege that Meta designed its social media platforms to include features that exploit young users’ psychological vulnerabilities to keep them using the platforms longer, and that many of these product features are strongly linked to damaging psychological outcomes. According to the surgeon general, eighth and tenth graders now spend an average of three-and-a-half hours per day on social media. In Illinois, nearly a million Illinois teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 access Instagram every month. From 2020 to 2021 in Illinois alone, over half a million Illinois teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 accessed Instagram every day. Raoul’s lawsuit alleges that Meta violated the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting the personal information of children under the age of 13 without obtaining parental permission as required by that statute. The coalition is asking the court to enter an injunction stopping Meta from continuing these unlawful practices. Raoul urges individuals in crisis to call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or call 911.

Photo Credit: Office of the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul