{"id":256668,"date":"2023-10-26T03:30:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T07:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/es\/?p=311908"},"modified":"2025-07-01T17:51:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T00:51:58","slug":"united-states-sues-meta-for-affecting-the-mental-health-of-minors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/united-states-sues-meta-for-affecting-the-mental-health-of-minors\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States sues Meta for affecting the mental health of minors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meta<\/strong>‘s expertise lies not in creating social networks or metaverses<\/a> (apologies for the joke) or inundating apps with advertisements (hang in there, WhatsApp<\/strong><\/a>). Above all else, Meta excels at collecting lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \"Facebook\"\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Facebook<\/span>\r\n DOWNLOAD<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path><\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This week, a coalition of 33 Attorneys General from states across the United States<\/strong>, both Democrats and Republicans, has filed a lawsuit against Meta, the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg<\/strong>. The lawsuit alleges that Meta’s social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram<\/strong>, are designed in a way that is “psychologically and physically harmful to younger users,” promoting “compulsive, prolonged, and unhealthy use.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Meta has leveraged powerful and unprecedented technologies to attract, engage, and ultimately trap young people and teenagers,” according to the lawsuit<\/a> filed in the federal court in Oakland, California. “Their motivation is profit.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Attorneys General highlighted various design elements of Meta’s platforms, especially Instagram, in the lawsuit, claiming that they negatively impact the mental health of underage users<\/strong>. Among the mentioned features are the Like button, push notifications from apps, and algorithmic feeds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In an article, Fortune<\/a><\/strong> magazine breaks down the most harmful elements for young people detailed in the lawsuit: algorithms designed to keep users on the platform for extended periods<\/strong>; social comparison tools, such as the “like” system; visual tools, including filters, that can trigger body dysmorphia<\/strong>; and user experience designs like “endless scrolling,” which encourage continuous browsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the research conducted by the states, these social media features exploit young users’ fear of missing out (a well-documented fear known as FOMO<\/a><\/strong>) and associate them with “depression, anxiety, insomnia, interference with education and daily life, and many other negative outcomes.”<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n \"Facebook\"\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n Facebook<\/span>\r\n DOWNLOAD<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/path><\/path><\/text><\/svg>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n <\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A coalition of 33 US attorneys general files suit against Meta for harming younger users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9256,"featured_media":256671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[1015],"tags":[2353],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-256668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionfacebook"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316953,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256668\/revisions\/316953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256668"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=256668"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=256668"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=256668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}