Meta Accused of Knowingly Allowing Millions of Underage Users on Its Platforms

Lawsuit alleges the company ignored reports of underage users, continued to collect their data without parental consent, and exploited teens' susceptibility to addictive features.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, knowingly allowed millions of underage users on its platforms, according to a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of 33 states.
Meta allegedly received over 1.1 million reports of users under the age of 13 on Instagram since early 2019, but only disabled a fraction of those accounts.
The company is accused of continuing to collect children's personal information, including their locations and email addresses, without parental permission, in violation of a federal children's privacy law.
Internal documents suggest that Meta was aware that its platform is addictive for teens, with researchers stating that teens are 'insatiable when it comes to ‘feel good’ dopamine effects.'
Meta's own data revealed that a third of teen girls say Instagram makes their body image worse, and that 17% said it worsened eating issues.