Two families from Kentucky, United States, represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center, filed a lawsuit against Meta in Northern California federal court.
In the lawsuit, Meta is accused of prioritizing user engagement over user security. It is also stated in the two lawsuits that Instagram causes its users to experience mental health problems.
The social media network is accused of causing their daughter to become addicted to Instagram, which then causes depression, anxiety and anorexia.
In the lawsuit at issue is the algorithm to show certain photos to certain users. In this case, the algorithm was blamed for inviting the victim to go on an excessive diet because it displayed photos of very slim models, as well as displaying content related to extreme sports.
In fact, the plaintiff's son even attempted suicide and was hospitalized several times. One of them had to be fitted with a tube to enter nutrients into the body because he didn't want to eat.
The lawsuit states that Meta knows that many of its users are addicted, especially in their teens. The plaintiff also said that Meta could not verify the age of its users, because the children of the two plaintiffs could register for Instagram even though they were only 12 years old -- the minimum age to use Instagram according to the rules is 13 years old.
So far, there have been at least nine lawsuits against Meta for being accused of being harmful to children's mental health, including one accusing Meta of contributing to an 11-year-old child's suicidal intentions.
Meta has yet to provide an official statement on this lawsuit.