Meta & Children's Online Safety"Social Media + Messaging + Video Calling + Payments: Can become tools for bad actors"
"Social Media + Messaging + Video Calling + Payments: Can become tools for bad actors" "Intersection of these 3 = complex risk"
2014–2026
Evidence timeline
539 passages quoted from Meta's internal records, court filings and congressional testimony, in date order. Each is labelled with its source.
Internal documents only Knowledge Profits over Safety Youth Targeting Knowledge Youth Targeting Youth Targeting Profits over Safety Knowledge Profits over Safety Knowledge Profits over Safety Knowledge Knowledge Knowledge
Undated
"It is worthwhile to consider how far we might consider going to make tradeoffs that prioritize user agency and that can simultaneously reduce engagement (unwanted engagement perhaps, from the users' perspective, but engagement nonetheless)."
Addiction & problematic use
"Dark patterns and 'addictive'-like features rob users of their agency" "It is worthwhile to consider how far we might consider going to make tradeoffs that prioritize user agency and that can simultaneously reduce engagement (unwanted engagement perhaps, from the users' perspective, but engagement nonetheless)." "Changes could result in drop offs in engagement metrics (at least in certain markets)." "Don't call out the project as being about 'dark patterns' or 'addictive-like features' since that could sound like we are trying to learn how to make more features that manipulate users. Similarly, change product teams' goals and internal narrative around making experiences 'habit-forming' or 'automatic.'"
"Facebook tends to be the first social media app US tweens use."
"Tweens and Young Teens are Facebook's best opportunity to win future generations of people" "Globally in 2017, 140 million 8-12 y/o's had their own smartphone" "For our comopany: Tweens/young teens are Facebook's best opportunity to win future generations in the long run" "Tweens are herd animals, and want to find communities where they can fit in." "Facebook tends to be the first social media app US tweens use." "Instagram... Relatively 'adult' product that may not be safe for tweens" "If we don't need to route to Blue, then is IG just our best option? Tweens use it now."
"People who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison."
"We found that those who stopped using Facebook for a week: Reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison." "People who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social comparison." "The most robust finding in our study is that Facebook increases feelings of social comparison (regardless of beliefs)."
"Objective: Guide product experiences for how COPPA compliant FB could serve tweens well"
Bullying & harassmentChild sexual exploitationAddiction & problematic useLikes
"Tweens are already on social media. They decide on which app is for them based on the app's user base. The real driver for tween engagement on social media is entertainment. Currently no social media app truly feels like it was made for them or fully fulfills their needs." "There is an opportunity for a tween centric social (media) experience." "Signing up for social media is a foregone conclusion" "From older siblings/cousins to peers with older siblings to the news, tweens know what social media is way before they actually start dabbling. Their engagement is really a matter of 'when,' not 'if.'" "[Parents] are concerned with their children: — Being exposed to mature content, which contributes to the larger concern of innocence lost — Accidentally sharing more information that they should, and resulting predator danger — Engaging with, or becoming the victims of, bullying — Having yet another reason to try to increase screen time — Being unable to communicate properly in the real world — Tying their self worth too closely to 'likes'" "Tweens discover Instagram from parents, older siblings or friends with older siblings." "Perceived user base [Instagram]: • Middle schoolers • High schoolers" "Which changes to product experiences would need to be made to make FB appropriate for tweens?" "Objective: Guide product experiences for how COPPA compliant FB could serve tweens well"
"Recommendations: Alter discovery surfaces to show more content from categories that tweens are most interested in."
Direct Messaging
"TL;DR How might we help tweens discover, curate, and go deep on their interests on IG? - While the majority of impressions are on connected content, young teens enjoy consuming Reels as a source of entertainment more than other age cohorts. - Tweens say they enjoy content that fall under the funny/comedy, gaming, music, animals/pets, and pranks categories, and unsurprisingly also tend to interact with those categories most too. How might we help tweens play, create, and collaborate on IG? - Tweens have preconceived barriers to using Instagram that rest mainly on the social pressure the platform presents. - Despite lower rates of broadcast sharing, young teens mimic older teens in their usage of private direct production. - They also use playful creation tools, like stickers, to express themselves more than adults. How might we help tweens feel like their close friends/family are nearby? - It starts with helping them find their close friends on our platform. Young teens rely on Suggested Users and Organic means to find their close friends. - Once they're connected, we then have to make sure they're maintaining those relationships on our platform. Direct stands out as a place for this as young teens spend far more time in Direct. - Not only are young teens using Direct a lot, they're also using it to keep up with close friends, with 86% of DMs received being from close friends." "Recommendations Alter discovery surfaces to show more content from categories that tweens are most interested in. - Tweens say they enjoy content that fall under the funny/comedy, gaming, music, animals/pets, and pranks categories, and unsurprisingly also tend to interact with those categories most too. Create lightweight, ephemeral sharing tools that lower the barrier and preconceived concerns to broadcast sharing. - Despite lower rates of broadcast sharing, young teens mimic older teens in their usage of private direct production. - They also use playful creation tools, like stickers, to express themselves more than adults. Lean into Direct as a form of connection and relationship building for tweens. - Not only are young teens using Direct a lot, they're also using it to keep up with close friends, with 66% of DMs received being from close friends."
"The stance we have historically taken is to give people control, but not in a way that hurts metrics"
Addiction & problematic useAutoplayInfinite ScrollNotifications+2
"Antagonists: Ig mostly focused on teens and youth Endless feed IG / tiktok Watch auto play (netflix Slot machine effect pull down to refresh Notifications Discover more Metrics for advertising" "Researchers' concerns regarding Facebook and Instagram appear to stem from the same basic idea that social media works on activating the brain's reward center by providing a sense of social acceptance in the form of likes, positive feedback, views, and other actions, which are referred to as 'social currency'. For example, Instagram pictures with more 'likes' activate certain parts of the brain (specifically, the ventral striatum) to a greater extent than pictures with fewer likes (Sherman et al., 2016; 2018)." "Facebook's design may facilitate habit formation through optimization for frequent engagement, gratifying experiences, and frictionless use. Some cues might result in habit and signal certain behaviors (e.g., notification checking, news feed scrolling)." "Remove slot machine see all posts post fomo, check in later" "The stance we have historically taken is to give people control, but not in a way that hurts metrics."
"Teens are still developing self control. They are motivated by the prospect of immediate rewards... We must find ways to make teens feel more productive and rewarded on our platform."
Bullying & harassmentChild sexual exploitationAddiction & problematic useDirect Messaging+1
"The teen brain is easily stimulated by novelty, making discovery surfaces very engaging if the content is fresh." "Redundancy is a buzzkill. We must make deduping content across surfaces a priority for the teen audience. We also need to provide more opportunities to help teens discover new content, interests and people." "Teens are prime to exploration and learning. Interests, conversations and sharing new experiences are top exploration tasks for teenagers." "Exploration is currently a shallow pool on IG. We need to better facilitate deep dives into interests and conversation by leveraging IGTV and further facilitating community. We should also be striving to spearhead innovative interactions that create new shared experiences." "Teens are still developing self control. They are motivated by the prospect of immediate rewards." "Teens are not finding enough value to the proportion of time they are spending on IG. We must find ways to make teens feel more productive and rewarded on our platform." "Teens are sensitive and vulnerable to experiences that can have lasting harm." "We should continue to seek ways to prevent negative experiences and hurt feelings on the platform. We should also invest in an education experience to teach teens how to protect themselves from dangers on IG." "Emotion, the intrigue of novelty and the prospect of reward are the drivers behind teens' decisions and behavior." "The teenage brain is usually about 80% mature. The remaining 20% rests in the frontal cortex - the area of the brain responsible for planning, judgement and foresight. So teens are highly dependent on the temporal lobe of the brain where emotions, memory and learning, and the reward system reign supreme." "'Identity Moratorium' -- Teens engage in a high level of exploration with a low level of commitment, which is called 'Identity Moratorium.' Those that do so successfully leave with a sense of who they are." "'Imaginary Audience' -- Personal fable is compounded by another psychological concept called 'imaginary audience', which is a heightened self consciousness fueled by the belief that all eyes are on them. This proves true in the data as well. At least in the U.S., teens are much more concerned about the quality of their content and have concerns about being judged. It's no wonder then why there are so many public sharing barriers and rules among teenagers even on ephemeral surfaces like Stories." "Negative Experiences. There is quite a bit of threat to be wary of especially among teens on Instagram, 7% report experiencing bullying on IG and most notably in DM (40% of bullying experiences are reported in DM). Unsurprisingly, people being bullied on IG are more likely to delete or deactivate their accounts." "Lastly a huge driver for teen behavior is the prospect of reward. This is what makes them predisposed to impulse, peer pressure, and potentially harmful risky behavior like drugs, stunts and pranks." "Teen brains are much more sensitive to dopamine, one of the reasons that the risk of drug addiction is higher for adolescents and it's the same thing that keeps them scrolling and scrolling. Due to the immature brain, they have a much harder time stopping even though they want to -- our own product foundation research has shown teens are unhappy with the amount of time they spend on our app." "And sadly, a short term reward and inexperience makes teens prone to risky behavior and there are plenty that present themselves online and on Instagram. This could be engaging with predators, consuming dark content, sharing nude photos or copycat self-harm."
"Improving parent sentiment will help unblock new teens to join IG"
"Parent Gatekeeping is #1 reason early teens do not join IG. Parents do not think that IG is appropriate/safe for their children." "Improving parent sentiment will help unblock new teens to join IG and also help improve overall brand sentiment"
"People who spend longer than 3 hours a day on Instagram have lower positive affect..."
Addiction & problematic use
People who spend longer than 3 hours a day on Instagram have lower positive affect and lower overall life satisfaction. Those who spend longer than 1 hour on IG have higher negative WB.
"We prioritized UX and ease of app use over effectiveness. By design, our products served as proof points but weren't effective at reducing behaviors. As a result, we see a low honor rate (5.6%) for break reminders and 2% per adopter reduction of LN20 with Quiet Mode."
Addiction & problematic useNotifications
"We pursued an opt in strategy that relied on teens recognizing their behavior and adopting new controls. However, adoption has been modest at 1.8% for Take a Break and 8.7% for Quiet Mode." "To minimize ecosystem impact, we kept a high bar on which users were targeted and how often, with long cooldowns. As a result, surveys shows awareness of our products is modest - only 33% of teens are aware of Take a Break and 44% Quiet mode." "We prioritized UX and ease of app use over effectiveness. By design, our products served as proof points but weren't effective at reducing behaviors. As a result, we see a low honor rate (5.6%) for break reminders and 2% per adopter reduction of LN20 with Quiet Mode. In contrast, TikTok requires a passcode to dismiss their default on Daily Limit product."
"By age 12, ~25% of pre-teens are (presumably) using Instagram."
"Respondents were asked to list the 5 most used apps on their child's primary device. Note similar growth of FB, IG, and SN. By age 12, ~25% of pre-teens are (presumably) using Instagram."
"Problematic use IS more common among teens and people in their 20s. This is consistent with younger people having problems with self-regulation."
Addiction & problematic useNotifications
"We often hear/read how Facebook INTENTIONALLY creates products to be addictive -- often to increase profit for the company or how Facebook manipulates people by leveraging human psychology against users (aka Social Dilemma)" "'Social media addiction' is a colloquial term, not a formal clinical diagnosis. We and other experts use the term 'Problematic Use' as a more accurate term to describe habitual or undesired use of Facebook. Definitions vary widely, but internally we define problematic use as a lack of control over social media use that leads to negative life outcomes." "Internal research suggests it affects ~3% of US Facebook MAP. This increases to over 10% if the definition is broadened to include feelings of guilt about Facebook use." "Problematic use IS more common among teens and people in their 20s. This is consistent with younger people having problems with self-regulation."
"On balance, the XFN recommends continuing the ban and erring on the side of protecting users from potential mental health impacts."
Body image & eating disordersFilters
"Should we continue to prohibit the creation of Cosmetic Surgery Effects by Developers on Spark AR?" "Cosmetic Surgery Effects change the shape of a person's face or facial features in a way that would require cosmetic surgery in real life. Our ban on Cosmetic Surgery Effects was instituted in October following negative press coverage, questions from regulators, and growing concern from experts about the impact of such effects on user wellbeing and mental health. While robust, longitudinal studies of the impact of Cosmetic Surgery Effects are not available, and global wellbeing experts have expressed significant concerns to us about the impact of these effects on body dysmorphia and eating disorders. On the other hand, some users and AR creators would like to see the ban lifted, and none of our competitors have similar limitations. Although data is limited, the ban on Cosmetic Surgery Effects does not seem to have impacted key user engagement metrics, but it is possible that we will see impacts in the long run. On balance, the XFN recommends continuing the ban and erring on the side of protecting users from potential mental health impacts. The XFN proposes revisiting the issue in October on the one-year anniversary of the ban, when more data may be available." "Independent experts we consulted from around the world, including in the APAC region, generally agree that Cosmetic Surgery Effects raise significant concerns related to mental health and wellbeing, especially for teenage girls. That said, studies that provide robust, long term data on the effects of these filters do not yet exist and they likely will not be available before the potentially damaging impact to user wellbeing manifests." "The increasing use of face filters on social media leads to unrealistic beauty standards, mental health issues, and has been postulated to be related to a rise in plastic surgery, a phenomenon often referred to as 'Snapchat Dysmorphia'... Facebook and Instagram use is associated with body image issues and anxiety among users and particularly among women and teenage girls. Airbrushed and unrealistic images of women online can lead to eating disorders and body dysmorphia (a condition linked to eating disorders and depression). This is more prevalent among women and even more so prevalent among teenage and adolescent girls."
Sources include internal documents, public filings and press reports. “Alleged by plaintiffs” denotes the plaintiffs’ characterization, not Meta’s own words. Source labels identify provenance, not a finding of fact.