This BBC report provides a useful insight into the four major court cases currently taking place within a landscape which include, companies like Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, Google,
owner of Youtube, and Snapchat, along with relatively newer platforms
like TikTok, Discord and social gaming platform Roblox, are facing
thousands of lawsuits in the US over claims that they have instead
harmed users, children in particular.
The cases include one in California which includes allegations from more than 1,000 school districts across the US. The schools accuse Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok of being intentionally designed to be addictive, which has allegedly harmed children mentally and emotionally through their excessive use of platforms.
A second case also in California, is focussed on Meta and Instagram. The complainants demand that Meta better prevent users under 13 years old from using its platforms and remove data it has previously collected from underage users, along with a host of other changes.
The third, against Roblox and Discord, was brought by a 13 year old boy who claims that he had been groomed and solicited by an individual who was arrested for his crimes which affected more that 24 children.
Finally not about children, is a case brought by an Australian billionaire who sued Meta over the company's alleged failure to combat scam advertisements tricking Australians into fake investments that allegedly proliferated on Facebook using his name and likeness.
For as long time these companies , and others have considered children to their future subscribers and have tried every trick to draw them in and keep them as apart of their user-base. The reason is that these new users become adults whose data has value.
There will be more of these cases in the coming years as governments try to find ways to keep children, and others, safe online.
To read the full article here.
