Source: The New York Times
Internal litigation documents reveal that Meta paid teenagers to evangelize Instagram and Facebook within peer networks, while Snapchat timed notifications to reach students during school hours. These tactics treated youth as both target market and distribution channel rather than users requiring protection. The companies built infrastructure for youth market penetration that relied on exploiting adolescent social hierarchies and institutional vulnerabilities. With 1,400 school districts suing and documentary evidence mounting, regulatory and litigation pressure will likely force platforms to disclose how they optimize for child engagement rather than child welfare.