America's teens are in the midst of a mental health crisis, studies show. When making this consideration, they point out that between 2011 and 2021, cases of depression in this group have doubled and the only way to explain this is found in the impact of social networks.
This is indicated by Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University (California) and researcher on the subject.
“No other explanation really fits why this situation has occurred at a time when the economy is doing well, crime is down, and virtually every indicator related to teenagers is getting better,” Twenge stressed on NPR, public radio. in United States. “But they spend much more time on social media than interacting face to face with each other or sleeping,” she added to highlight the isolating effect.
Some of this professor's work is part of the arguments in the legal complaint filed by a coalition of 41 US states against Meta for fraudulently trapping children and deceiving subscribers about the security of their platforms.
In this initiative, they maintain that the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg manufactures its products with addictive functions that hook and harm young users of the services offered by Facebook and Instagram.
This company also owns applications such as WhatsApp and Messenger.
The lawsuit, filed in federal and state courts, highlights that Meta hides from citizens the dangers that its platforms pose for younger subscribers. They allege that the company knowingly labeled its products for users under the age of thirteen when they are excluded by the company's own policies and federal law. States want to force these networks to change functions that they claim are a threat to teenage users.
State prosecutors maintain that Meta violates consumer protections and alleged controls for minors. According to the complaint, led by Colorado and California, the company has created what the accusation calls manipulation functions of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in decision making and many other brain functions such as memory, sensations (emotionality, affectivity ) or communication.
The algorithm is the one that decides what each user should see when entering Facebook or Instagram and has the ability to direct the will so that the subscriber moves through these networks without limits, “infinitely.” These functions hooked adolescents and, the lawsuit highlights, Meta was aware that this would cause the minors' self-esteem to suffer once they became addicted to these social networks. Prosecutors insist that this firm “designed psychologically manipulative products to induce minors to become compulsive users” and extend their fall “into rabbit holes of toxic and harmful content.”
In addition, they also accuse this company of violating the federal law on online privacy for minors since, illegally, they collected data from these subscribers without parental consent.
“Since this investigation began, Meta has addressed how to reinforce the support measures for young people that were already applied on its platforms and worked to improve the experiences of the youngest,” replied a company spokesperson to black out any negligence on the part of the company. company and ensure security.
Some experts compared this initiative to the litigation that occurred in the 1990s due to lawsuits against large companies in the tobacco sector. That led to the imposition of new limitations on the way it marketed its products. This has ultimately led to a drop in cigarette consumption. And this is the aspiration, that in the future there will be fewer children on the networks.
