Leading tech companies, including Meta and TikTok, have been taken to court in Brazil over allegations that they failed to put in place mechanisms to prevent unsupervised use of their social media platforms by children.
The two lawsuits, filed by Brazilian consumer rights group Collective Defense Institute, demand around $525 million from TikTok, Meta, and Kwai. The safety of children on the internet has become a major concern in Brazil, with millions of minors being able to access social media platforms.
The lawsuits call for the establishment of clear data protection mechanisms and warnings related to potential risks to the mental well-being of underage users due to addictive features of social media platforms. Various studies on the potential harm of unsupervised social media usage — particularly among young people — serves as the basis for these lawsuits.
“It is urgent that measures be adopted in order to change the way the algorithm works, the processing of data from users under 18, and the way in which teenagers aged 13 and over are supervised and their accounts created, in order to ensure a safer, healthier experience,” lawyer Lillian Salgado, who is one of the plaintiffs, remarked.
In response to the development, Meta stated that the company wants underage users to have “safe and age-appropriate experiences on our apps, and we have been working on these issues for over a decade, developing more than 50 tools, resources, and features to support teens and their guardians”.
Meta’s “Teen Accounts”, which were launched in September, are expected to be rolled out in Brazil soon. The Teen Accounts come with automatically private profiles for users aged under 18, with built-in privacy settings and added parental controls. Users below the age of 16 will only be to change their default settings with the permission of their parents, according to Meta.
