Mother reacts to Meta settlement
“No amount of money is ever going to bring my beautiful daughter back,” Victoria Hicks said in an emotional statement outside a federal courtroom in California where Meta settled a trial over teenage addiction to its platforms.
Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/user/guardianwires?sub_confirmation=1
Victoria, whose daughter, Alexandra Hicks, took her own life at the age of 16 blames social media companies for her daughter’s death.
Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenagers, including significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps, and pay up to $18bn after dozens of US states accused the tech giant of addicting and harming children with dangerous products.
The settlement will be divided between the states involved in the lawsuit over a period of 10 years, subject to court approval. Throughout the proceedings, Meta denied all allegations.
California would receive between $1.5bn and $2.1bn and Colorado will get about $615m.
Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap face thousands more similar US lawsuits brought by families, individuals, school districts and other attorneys general.
#meta #metasettlement #socialmediaaddiction #usa #instagram #facebook #markzuckerberg