Over 100,000 children face daily sexual harassment on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, court case reveals, US

A recent court case has revealed shocking information about child abuse on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms. Internal company estimates from 2021 suggest that up to 100,000 children are subjected to sexual harassment on these platforms every day, including the dissemination of explicit images. The attorney general of New Mexico included this information in a complaint filed against Meta, highlighting the company’s failure to protect minors on the internet. The complaint also included excerpts from a Meta internal chat, in which an employee expressed concern about child grooming on TikTok, to which a colleague responded that child safety was not a priority. The filing further revealed that Meta executives only responded to a complaint made by an Apple executive after their own child was solicited on Facebook in 2020. Meta claims to have addressed many of the issues raised in the complaint and disabled over half a million accounts for violating child safety policies. However, the lawsuit alleges that Facebook and Instagram failed to adequately protect underage users from predators, as employees’ pleas for safety changes went unanswered due to the company prioritizing social media engagement and advertising growth. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. In a separate development, a US judge has ruled that Zuckerberg must participate in a deposition for another ongoing lawsuit in Texas pertaining to the company’s face recognition technology. The state court rejected Meta’s appeal to avoid the oral deposition. These revelations highlight the urgent need for improved child safety measures on social media platforms and raise questions about Meta’s commitment to protecting its young users.