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☆ Mark Zuckerberg isn't personally liable for any harm caused to children by Facebook and Instagram, judge says
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-09 | by ( Lauren Edmonds | Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A federal judge said Mark Zuckerberg is not personally liable in over two dozen lawsuits. AdvertisementA federal judge said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not personally liable in over two dozen lawsuits accusing his company of causing social media addiction in children. Plaintiffs said that Meta knew Instagram and Facebook posed health risks to its users, especially children. The court's ruling comes as world leaders crack down on some social media companies over claims that they are addictive to children and teens. AdvertisementIn Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week announced plans to introduce a law banning children under 16 from having social media accounts.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Instagram, —, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Plaintiffs, Zuckerberg, TikTok, Anthony Albanese, Antigone Davis, Previn Warren Organizations: Facebook, Service, Associated Press, Meta, Business, Motley Rice LLC, Big Tech, Google Locations: California

☆ Australia wants to ban kids under 16 from social media as world governments seek to crack down on the 'addictive' apps
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-09 | by ( Kenneth Niemeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Australia plans to ban social media for users under 16, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. AdvertisementWith young people using social media more than ever, and those social media companies perfecting the algorithms that keep them engaged, concerns about social media addiction are taking root all over the world. Now, Australia wants to ban social media for everyone under 16. Australia's social media ban will be introduced into Parliament during its final session this year, which begins on November 18. If passed, social media companies will have 12 months to figure out how to keep minors off their apps before the law is enforced, he said.

Persons: Anthony Albanese, —, " Albanese, Albanese, Jackie Hallan, Hallan, they're, Antigone Davis, Davis Organizations: Service, Australian, TikTok, Guardian, Reuters, Associated Press Locations: Australia, United States, Kentucky

Meta is ramping up its efforts to fight sextortion on Instagram with the launch of new features that are designed to help prevent young users from getting blackmailed into sharing nude photos. Starting Thursday, Instagram will automatically block follow requests sent to teenage users from accounts that display certain “scammy behaviors,” according to Meta. At a Senate online child safety hearing in January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents who said Instagram contributed to their children’s suicides or exploitation. Last month, Meta announced it will begin automatically placing all users under 18 into “teen accounts” with stricter privacy settings. “If they really want to promote meaningful change and online safety for kids and teens, they can stop opposing federal solutions like the Kids Online Safety Act,” Hinkle said.

Persons: sextortion, Instagram, Antigone Davis, Meta’s, —, we’ve, ”, Mark Zuckerberg, Haley Hinkle, “, ” Hinkle, they’re, Davis, Hinkle Organizations: Meta, FBI, NBC News, Kids, Senate Locations: Fairplay, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia

☆ Meta launches new Instagram campaign to tackle teen sextortion scams
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMeta launches new Instagram campaign to tackle teen sextortion scamsAntigone Davis, Meta VP and global head of safety, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the company's new Instagram campaign and safety features to fight online sextortion scams, what the new safety features entail, and more.

Persons: Antigone Davis Organizations: Meta

☆ Instagram teen accounts: Meta's global head of safety weighs in
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-17 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailInstagram teen accounts: Meta's global head of safety weighs inAntigone Davis, Meta global head of safety, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the launch of Instagram teen accounts, the protections in question, and much more.

Persons: Antigone Davis Organizations: Meta

Meta is teaming up with Snapchat and TikTok as part of a new initiative to prevent content featuring suicide or self-harm from spreading across the social media platforms, Meta said Thursday in a blog post. Under Thrive, Meta will identify content that features suicidal themes or self-harm and flag that content to TikTok and Snapchat so they can also investigate if the same or similar content has been posted to those apps. When content featuring suicide or self-harm is identified on a Meta platform, it will be assigned a number known as a “hash,” according to the spokesperson. Social media platforms, including Meta, TikTok and Snapchat, have long been criticized for not doing more to moderate content that teens consume, including video and images of self-harm. In its blog post Thursday, Meta said that it removed 12 million pieces of content featuring suicide and self-harm from Facebook and Instagram from April to June.

Persons: Meta, ” Antigone Davis, ” Organizations: Meta, Mental Health Coalition, Tech, Apple, Google, National Library of Medicine, Facebook

☆ Instagram to crack down on teen sextortion
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The company announced on Thursday it is testing new features to curb an alarming trend called financial sextortion, which often targets kids and teenagers. Once the nude images are sent, the scammers claim they’ll post them online, either on public websites or on newsfeeds where their friends will see, unless the victims send money or gift cards. In the upcoming weeks and among a subset of users, Instagram said it will roll out various new features, such as blurring nude images sent in direct messages and informing users when they’ve interacted with someone who engaged in financial sextortion. But the FBI recently said it has seen an increase in financial sextortion cases from strangers, often started by scammers overseas. Meta said it is also working on ways to identify accounts that may be engaging in sextortion scams by detecting and monitoring likely sextortion behavior.

Persons: Instagram, they’ve, ” Antigone Davis, “ It’s, sextortion, Meta, Meta Meta, ” Davis, “, ” Organizations: CNN, FBI, National Center for, Meta, Tech Coalition

☆ Meta collected children’s data from Instagram accounts, unsealed court document alleges
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-26 | by ( Eva Rothenberg | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The federal complaint calls for court orders prohibiting Meta from the practices the attorneys general allege violate the law. Civil penalties could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars, as Meta allegedly hosts millions of users who are teens and children. However, despite the company’s internal research confirming concerns with social comparison on its platforms, the lawsuit alleges Meta refused to change its algorithm. Eight additional attorneys general sued Meta last month in various state courts, making similar claims to the massive multistate federal lawsuit. Florida sued Meta in its own separate federal lawsuit, alleging the company misled users about potential health risks of its products.

Persons: Meta, “ Meta’s, ” Meta, Antigone Davis, “ We’ve, ”, Instagram, Adam Mosseri, “ Meta, Letitia James, ” James, Frances Haugen, Brian Fung Organizations: CNN, Meta, COPPA, Facebook, “, “ Social Locations: New York, Florida

☆ Meta is begging the government for new rules on age verification. But is it really trying to stick it to TikTok?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Katie Notopoulos | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Meta published a blog inviting legislation that would require parental approval to download apps. But preventing teens from getting apps would likely hurt TikTok more than it would Meta. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . For starters, making it harder for 13-to-16 year olds to download social apps would probably hurt TikTok far more than it would Meta. Although Meta's apps are somewhat rebounding, the chokehold TikTok has on younger kids compared to Meta is stark.

Persons: Meta, —, Mark Zuckerberg's, Antigone Davis, TikTok, Meta's, Mark Zuckerberg, it's, We've, Faith Eischen, we're, Danny Weiss, Weiss Organizations: Meta, Service, Facebook, Google, Apple, Media Locations: China, New York, California, Massachusetts

“This legislation will help tackle the risks of social media affecting our children and protect their privacy.”The regulations sought by James and Gov. The legislation in New York also follows actions taken by other U.S. states this year to curb social media use among children. In March, Utah became the first state to pass laws that require minors to get parental consent before using social media. The U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to decide whether state attempts to regulate social media platforms violate the Constitution. The justices will review two laws from Florida and Texas that mostly aim to prevent social platforms from censoring users based on their viewpoints.

Persons: Letitia James, “, ” James, Kathy Hochul, Kathleen Spence, Spence, ” Spence, Antigone Davis, Meta’s, ”, Carl Szabo, NetChoice, James, TikTok, . Indiana, Maysoon Khan, Kelvin Chan Organizations: YouTube, James, New York Child Data, ”, European Union, Digital Services, General Data, EU, Regulators, The, Meta, TikTok, U.S, Supreme, Associated Press Locations: York, “ Young, Europe, California, New York, Utah, Arkansas, ., Florida, Texas, Albany, London

☆ Arkansas sues TikTok, ByteDance and Meta over mental health claims
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington CNN —The state of Arkansas has sued TikTok, its parent ByteDance, and Facebook-parent Meta over claims the companies’ products are harmful to users, in the latest effort by public officials to take social media companies to court over mental-health and privacy concerns. The complaints come amid mounting pressure in Washington on TikTok for its ties to China and as states have grown more aggressive in suing tech companies broadly, particularly on mental health claims. The suit further alleges that TikTok’s Chinese sister app, Douyin, does not make such content available within China. Adobe Stock“TikTok poses known risks to young teens that TikTok’s parent company itself finds inappropriate for Chinese users who are the same age,” the complaint said. TikTok has migrated US user data to servers operated by the American tech giant Oracle and has established organizational controls intended to prevent unauthorized data access.

☆ Utah governor signs bill requiring teens to get parental approval to join social media sites
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

As part of the bill, called the Utah Social Media Regulation Act, social media platforms will have to conduct age verification for all Utah residents, ban all ads for minors and impose a curfew, making their sites off limits between the hours of 10:30 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. for anyone under the age of 18. The bill will also require social platforms to give parents access to their teens’ accounts. “Social media provides a lifeline for many young people, in addition to community, education, and conversation,” said Jason Kelley, director of activism at the EFF. Given that the bill is unprecedented, it’s unclear how exactly the social media companies will adapt. Inouye said minors could “steal” identities – such as from family members who don’t use social media – to create accounts that they can access and use without oversight.

☆ Why Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is suing social media companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The lawsuit, which was filed in California federal court, said “the need is great” to continue to fund mental health outpatient programs, mobile crisis units, family-based mental health services, and in-school mental health programming and training to address the mental health of young people. Bucks County is joining a small but growing number of of school districts and families who have filed lawsuits against social media companies for their alleged impact on teen mental health. Some families have also filed wrongful death lawsuits against tech platforms, alleging their children’s social media addiction contributed to their suicides. Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, believes it will be “difficult” for counties and school districts to win lawsuits against social media companies. “There will be the issues of showing that the social media content was the cause of the harm that befell the children,” he said.

☆ Meta launches a tool to proactively prevent sextortion of teens
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Meta is taking steps to crack down on the spread of intimate images of teenagers on Facebook and Instagram. To create a hash of an explicit image, a teen can visit the website TakeItDown.NCMEC.org to install software onto their device. Meanwhile, President Biden demanded in his latest State of the Union address more transparency about tech companies’ algorithms and how they impact their young users’ mental health. Meta recommends teens who have multiple copies of the image or edited versions make a hash for each one. “There’s no one panacea for the issue of sextortion or the issue of the non-consensual sharing of intimate images,” Davis said.

☆ Seattle public schools sue social media companies for allegedly harming students’ mental health
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

While a growing number of families have filed lawsuits against social media companies for their alleged impact on the mental health of their children, it’s unusual to see a school district take such a step. In the past year, a number of prominent social media platforms have introduced more tools and parental control options aimed at better protecting younger users amid mounting scrutiny. TikTok also rolled out a tool that aims to help people decide how much time they want to spend on the app. Snapchat, meanwhile, has introduced a parent guide and hub aimed at giving guardians more insight into how their teens use the app. That includes more information about who their kids have been talking to over the last week, without divulging the content of those conversations.

☆ A Democratic senator mistook the slang word 'finsta' for one of Facebook's products in a hearing with the company
▼ + stars: | 2021-09-30 | by ( Palmer Haasch | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Senate Commerce Committee held a Thursday hearing about Facebook, Instagram, and mental health. "Finstas," secret accounts some teens make, are not an official Facebook product. Sen. Blumental asked Davis about "finsta towards the end of the hearing (at the 2:44:50 mark in the publicly available webcast). "Finsta" (fake Instagram) is a slang term used to refer to smaller, side accounts that people — frequently teenagers — make on Instagram. "Finsta" is not a Facebook product, nor a clearly demarcated feature on Instagram — it's simply a secondary account that people create, which has become a cultural trend.

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