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Meta, which also owns Instagram, announced Thursday that it
would hide more content on its apps from teens after calls for
the social media giant to better protect children from harmful
content. The company has been under pressure in the U.S. and in
Europe over allegations that its apps are addictive and have
helped contribute to a mental health crisis.
State Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, said she plans to introduce
legislation in Illinois to address mental health problems among
young people.
“You talk to teachers in your school districts and they will
tell you that the No. 1 issue that they are dealing with is
mental health breakdowns, and they’re coming to Springfield for
more money,” Rezin told The Center Square. “We need to ask
ourselves why are we seeing these breakdowns, especially in
minors.”
Meta whistleblower Arturo Bejar told a U.S. Senate subcommittee
in November that the company was aware of the harms its products
had on teens but failed to take action.
Illinois joined dozens of other states in a class action lawsuit
against Meta, alleging the tech giant deliberately engineered
Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children. The lawsuit
claims that Meta’s business practices violate the federal
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, as well as other
consumer protection laws.
“Meta knows that its social media platforms have features that
exacerbate issues young people have with depression, anxiety,
body image dysmorphia and thoughts of self harm,” Illinois
Attorney General Kwame Raoul said when announcing the lawsuit
last October.
This week, Meta announced dozens of tools they said will empower
parents and youth and the legislative approaches they support
that are being introduced around the country. They include
hiding age-inappropriate content and removing violating content
from its apps.
The company is also providing updates to Facebook’s and
Instagram’s content recommendation settings for teens in an
effort to make it more difficult for people to come across
potentially sensitive content or accounts in places like Search
and Explore.
Meta said it expects to complete the updates over the coming
weeks.
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