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Tech companies have spent years telling parents that they’re working to make their products safer for children. However, ongoing jury trials, settlements, and related lawsuits are pending against: Meta, google and snap Suggests they aren’t working hard enough.
The latest example emerged this week. snap has privately settled a lawsuit alleging that its technology caused severe emotional distress to two teenage users. MetaTikTok and YouTube previously settled with plaintiffs in the same lawsuit. And Google was sued this week by the parents of a child who allegedly suffered a mental health crisis after chatting with the Gemini AI chatbot in Google Classroom.
Concerns are growing as artificial intelligence companies pursue multitrillion-dollar valuations and established internet giants pour money into developing advanced AI models and bringing them into classrooms. Products and features aimed at maximizing engagement can have negative effects on users and require “widespread systemic changes in technology design, especially when used by children,” said developmental psychologist Kate Blocker.
“I think it’s really important to consider child safety when designing products like AI and social media, rather than after a problem has been discovered,” said Blocker, director of research and programs at the nonprofit Children and Screens.
Snap Inc.’s settlement this week, which spares CEO Evan Spiegel from testifying in a Los Angeles courtroom, continues a general trend of tech companies seeking to shield themselves from public scrutiny in the wake of various high-profile child safety cases this year, said Joseph McNally, director of emerging litigation at McNicholas & McNicholas.
The case was one of several related to a social media personal injury lawsuit that Meta and YouTube lost earlier this year. Further trials are expected to begin in March.
“I see this settlement, and other settlements in this space, as an effort by technology companies to change direction, because I think not only were there real legal issues, but also real damage to the reputation of their product and the reputation of the company,” said McNally, a former deputy U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
“The parties are pleased to have been able to amicably resolve this matter,” a Snap spokesperson said in a statement.
“We’ve built safety measures, launched safety tutorials, and partnered with experts. Safety never ends, and we remain committed to continually strengthening the safety, privacy, and well-being of our community,” a Snap spokesperson said.
But a federal lawsuit involving Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube, and school districts across the country remains, along with various state attorney general lawsuits. In August, Meta agreed to pay nearly $17 billion to settle a child mental health lawsuit with the state Department of Administration. Some AGs are still filing similar lawsuits against Meta’s rivals.
McNally said social media lawsuits have helped inform parents and the public about how the industry designs products used by teens and children.
“The technology arms race continues,” he said. “What is often missing is how to balance participation in the arms race with practicality and product safety.”
Further monitoring in the classroom
Google faced further criticism this week for moving too quickly. The New York Times reported Tuesday that K-12 schools that don’t allow their students to use Google’s AI tools will lose access to search. “Search and AI are deeply integrated,” Chris Phillips, Google’s vice president of education, told the Times.
It coincided with a new lawsuit against Google centered around a teenage boy’s suicide crisis that his parents blamed on the company’s Gemini AI. Plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that Google rushed to integrate Gemini into Chromebook computers intended for schoolchildren, even though it was aware of Gemini’s dangers.
“We are reviewing the allegations in the lawsuit and take them very seriously,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “We have worked extensively with medical and academic experts to build capabilities that help young people find critical support and trusted resources when they need it.”
Google and its Internet peers have been able to rely on Section 230 for decades.
The federal law, passed in 1996, protects social media companies from being sued over content posted by their users. As a result, plaintiffs’ attorneys and state administrators have focused on alleged harm caused by the design of technology platforms rather than their content.
Some plaintiffs are using the same tactic against AI companies. OpenAI is facing several lawsuits from state AGs and plaintiffs’ attorneys, inspired by social media lawsuits that claim ChatGPT’s design could pose a risk to children.
The lawsuit could increase financial risk as the company plans a major IPO. OpenAI competitor Anthropic, which plans to go public this month, highlighted the issue in its prospectus, even though Claude’s creator prohibits the use of its product by children.
“This clearly shows that tech companies are anticipating more litigation risk than they did 10 years ago,” said Michelle Knights, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Blocker said the highly personalized nature of current AI-powered chat apps makes it “a bit unpredictable” to determine exactly what the apps will say to children. She emphasized the importance of testing and evaluating these products for children’s developmental safety from the beginning, “rather than after harm begins to occur.”
Blocker said the class action lawsuit helped educate the public about the potential pitfalls of poor product design choices. And that could be a force for change in the technology industry.
“Certainly there is hope that this will drive real systemic change, both from a regulatory perspective and from an internal decision-making perspective,” Blocker said.
If you are having suicidal thoughts or are in distress, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988) for support and assistance from a trained counselor.
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