Meta Sued 33 Countries For Accused Of Targeting Children Under 13 On Its Platform

Ket. photo: Meta is being sued for the number of users under 13 years old (photo: dock. unsplash)

JAKARTA Meta has been sued on a large scale by 33 states in the United States. The lawsuit was filed because Meta's social media platform is considered detrimental to young people.

In a recent report, the lawsuit is trying to show that Meta is aware of the presence of children under the age of 13 on its platform. They are also accused of wanting the child's presence for years.

The lawsuit documents found by the New York Times say that Meta is never honest about how they handle underage user accounts. These accounts are difficult to disable, but user data is constantly being collected.

The argument in the lawsuit says that Facebook and Instagram users under the age of 13 are open secrets on Meta. In fact, the policies on these two platforms state that users should be at least 13 years old.

These children lie about their age and the company knows this, but Meta is not trying to stop these children's actions. Throughout 2019 to 2023, Meta reportedly received 1.1 million underage users.

"(Meta) only disabled a small part of the account and continued to regularly collect data on children without parental permission," the lawsuit said, quoted by VOI via Engadget.

This action was deemed in violation of the 1998 Child's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). In addition to gathering child information without permission, Meta is also considered to manipulate underage users to spend a lot of time on their platform.

In fact, Meta is accused of promoting body dysmorphia, mental disorders in the form of excessive anxiety in physical appearance, and making children see potentially harmful content.