Strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.
lawyers are funny
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.
lawyers are funny
Why does everyone talk about children as if adults aren't susceptible to the same mechanisms?
Gee, I wonder if the corporations will win these cases?
In don't trust big corporations at all. Greedy mammoths with deep pockets buying politicians.
Partially to blame are the parents as well who shove tech in front of the kids to shut them up.
Its a fked up timeline.
I was in a store and saw a toddler walking around with a $2000 phone. The mom took the phone from her just for a second. The kid screamed so loud. The kid demanded the phone back immediately. She folded and gave it back. All they were doing was watching a looping video of fish...
Get their kids to shut up, because the greedy coperations now require both parents to work sometimes multiple jobs whilst the wealth pools towards the sociopathic owners.
I’m afraid they‘ll get a slap on the wrist and be forced to introduce face ID or something equally harmful for users after politicians get involved. I don‘t trust these things anymore when „it‘s about the children!“
I’m with ya. Especially with the blatant kiss assery from these two companies to the government, this headlines reads to me as “Google and Meta have agreed to give Trump even more money so that they can add even more surveillance to their products”
"addiction in children’s brains"
I don't think these corporations deliberately aimed their content at any age group. Kids are not ready for alcohol or cars or pron. Did the corporations care? Probably not. Would they have at one time, here in the US? Yes, back when legislators were answerable to their constituents. At one time the FCC worried about the lyrics in songs on the radio. The population was more uptight about it. Then.
OTOH: I recall times when parents oversaw what their children consumed. They didn't need to buy them smartphones or laptops, and they could have enforced rulse on their use. Parenting isn't for everyone.
Dude… kids are fucking cows to milk… in Europe we have special protections for them bundled in GDPR because they are sooooooo good targets with soooooo much potential. To give you some food for thought ; Microsoft is pushing their products as soon as schools so that kids are hooked. And they are far from being the worse….
I don’t think these corporations deliberately aimed their content at any age group.
Instagram intentionally targeted ads at teenagers specifically when they were identified as feeling low self worth or depressed. https://techcrunch.com/2025/04/09/meta-whistleblower-sarah-wynn-williams-says-company-targeted-ads-at-teens-based-on-their-emotional-state/
Instagram used this data to more effectively keep teens hooked on the app. For example, they'd show a girl who just deleted a selfie out of embarrassment more photos of attractive women, which she would then likely scroll through, attempting to internally figure out how she could become attractive like them. Coincidentally, the perfect time for Instagram to then serve an ad for a new skin cream, weight loss program, etc.
YouTube explicitly has a service for children and I'm sure Facebook discovery would prove they explicitly market for children.
Facebook specifically was aware that teenage girls were especially harmed by their algorithms, so naturally, instead of reducing that harm, they leaned into it.
Wouldn't doubt it if they did market to kids. TV networks did it for decades, every Saturday morning, with no FCC challenges.
PBS had services for children as well. Were Bert and Ernie or Mr. Rogers 'addictive'? I have no idea what YT for children is like, but I wouldn't have handed my kids over to them to babysit without checking them out ... frequently. Corporations exist for one purpose. Will government stop them?