A bipartisan coalition of the U.S. Attorney General said on Thursday that it has launched an investigation into Facebook (now known as Metaplatform) to promote its subsidiary Instagram To children, despite the potential harm.
The survey involves at least nine states and comes as Facebook is reviewing its treatment of children and young people.
They said in an email statement that the attorney general is investigating whether the company violated consumer protection laws and put young people at risk.
“Facebook, now Meta, has failed to protect the young people on its platform, and instead chose to ignore or in some cases redouble its attention to known manipulations that pose a real threat to physical and mental health-the exploitation of children for profit.” Maura Healy, the attorney general of Massachusetts, said at a press conference.
A Meta spokesperson responded in a statement, “These allegations are false and show a profound misunderstanding of the facts.”
The spokesperson said: “Although the challenge of protecting young people online has affected the entire industry, we are a leader in fighting bullying and supporting people with suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and eating disorders.”
They added that the company is continuing to develop parental supervision controls and exploring ways to provide teens with age-appropriate experiences by default.
Instagram, like other social media sites, has rules for children under 13 years of age to join the platform, but said it knows that it has users of this age.
In September of this year, the company said that due to growing opposition to the project, it suspended its plans to develop an Instagram version for children.
The move was reported in the Wall Street Journal that internal documents leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen showed that the company knew that Instagram could have harmful mental health effects on young girls. Facebook stated that the leaked files have been used to portray a false picture of the company’s work.
In the first few months, a team of more than 40 state attorneys wrote to the company asking it to abandon its plans for child-centered applications. Legislators expressed concern about this.
The states participating in the survey included Nebraska, Massachusetts, California, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vermont, New York and New Jersey.
