Newly-unsealed COPPA suit says Zuck’s mob knows full well there are loads of users under the age of 13, but did nothing.

Thirty-three state AGs are continuing their hunt against Meta. A newly unsealed complaint accuses Instagram and the rest of Meta of lying to Congress, deliberately targeting the underaged, selling kids’ personal data who-knows-where and causing suicides.

Meta’s response? Blame the parents. In today’s SB Blogwatch, we think of the children.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Two fascinating hours of Raymond Chen.

Don’t be Square

What’s the craic? Natasha Singer reports—“Millions of Underage Users Were an ‘Open Secret’”:

“Users under 13”
The privacy charges are part of a larger federal lawsuit, filed last month by California, Colorado and 31 other states. [It] accuses Meta of unfairly ensnaring young people. … Using snippets from internal emails, employee chats and company presentations, … the unsealed complaint [says] Instagram for years “coveted and pursued” underage users even as the company “failed” to comply with the … law.
…
Meta “continually failed” to make effective age-checking systems a priority. … The lawsuit argues that Meta elected not to build systems to effectively detect and exclude such underage users because it viewed children as a crucial demographic … that the company needed to capture to assure continued growth. … It also accused Meta executives of publicly stating in congressional testimony that the company’s age-checking process was effective.
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A 1998 federal law, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act … requires that online services with content aimed at children obtain verifiable permission from a parent before collecting personal details … from users under 13. … Since 2019, the F.T.C. has successfully brought similar children’s privacy complaints against tech giants including Google, … Amazon, Microsoft and Epic Games.

Ouch. Cheyenne MacDonald has more—“Unsealed complaint says Meta ‘coveted’ under-13s”:

“Harmful content”
An unsealed complaint … claims that Meta has long been dishonest about how it handles underage users’ accounts … often failing to disable them when reported and continuing to harvest their data. … It alleges the presence of under-13s is an “open secret” at Meta: … Children can easily lie about their age — something the lawsuit says Meta is well aware of, and has done little to stop.
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The lawsuit also argues that Meta’s platforms manipulate young users into spending unhealthy amounts of time on the apps, promote body dysmorphia and expose them to potentially harmful content. … A Meta spokesperson said the company was “disappointed.” … Meta earlier this month [called] for federal legislation to put more responsibility on parents.

What’s the harm? What’s at stake? Rikki Schlott has a Gen-Z opinion—“Meta could protect teen girls but puts $270 profit from each of them first”:

“Meta’s own survey data”
My generation wasn’t just collateral damage in a tech innovation. Rather, we were targeted and manipulated for profit — and sent spiraling into a mental health crisis by greedy Big Tech giants.
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Instagram has devastated youth mental health — and … its parent company Meta knew exactly what they were doing. … The company has even put a price on the head of every teen user: [$2,700] in “lifetime” profits as long as … American teens … stay on the platform, according to the lawsuit.
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Meta’s own survey data allegedly found that 22% of children aged 6 to 9 and 35% of those aged 10 to 12 had used the platform. But they’ve scrambled to hide the evidence. … Meta also appears to have known full well that young users are being pummeled with dangerous and harmful content. An internal investigation into eating disorder content found that girls could easily be sent down rabbit holes.

Cue: Countless comments blaming parents who allow kids on the internet. To which COGlory has this riposte:

Whole lot of people are not understanding the point. Of course there are kids on the internet. … And of course Meta knows it. That is exactly why Meta needs to stop their psychologically manipulative and harmful practices.
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Kids will access these websites, and … it isn’t a fair fight. They’re taking their developing brains and going up against billion dollar algorithms designed by … psychologists to manipulate them.
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Unsurprisingly, this is having negative effects. [Meta] cannot claim they don’t know this — everyone knows this. … Kids are killing themselves because of [Meta]. We need to stop this manipulation.

Algorithms designed by psychologists? You better believe it. arglebargle_xiv sure does:

That’s the same as what heroin does. Fecebook are drug dealers, they just deliver the stimulus a different way than a heroin dealer does. When you’ve got drug dealers directly targeting children, trying to shift the blame to parents isn’t going to achieve much.

Strong words. With some stronger ones, here’s u/Aleucard, who’s no fan of regulation:

I am naturally leery about anything even resembling the restriction of free speech. But dammit these companies are making it untenable with this horse****.

And it’s not just kids. Heed Farina from Puget Sound:

Meta has been absolutely corrosive for my small community — politically divisive, a source of school bullying, suicide information propagation — for every generation. If they cannot be held accountable for hurting our youngest citizens, they will definitely continue to hurt everyone else. I’m not optimistic, though.

And Rich Felker—@[email protected]—agrees:

I really hate this framing because it implies the solution is policing “underage” users and policing everybody trying to determine their age and state recognized identities, rather than platforms abolishing their behaviors that are harmful … for everyone.
…
The solution to, “We’re doing X, and X is harmful to children,” isn’t, “Figure out who is a child and ban them.” It’s, “Stop doing X.”

Meanwhile, did you spot the “interesting” timing? Jeff Horwitz explains:

Meta filed the unredacted state AG suit right before the holiday.

And Finally:

The new old new thing

Previously in And Finally

You have been reading SB Blogwatch by Richi Jennings. Richi curates the best bloggy bits, finest forums, and weirdest websites … so you don’t have to. Hate mail may be directed to @RiCHi, @richij or [email protected]. Ask your doctor before reading. Your mileage may vary. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Do not stare into laser with remaining eye. E&OE. 30.

Image sauce: Brett Jordan (via Unsplash; leveled, rotated and cropped)