As Phase 2 of the Meta trial continues – one of the central topics that’s emerging is the role of the parent.
Questions like how much responsibility does a parent have when limiting the amount of time their child is on social media.
How responsible are they for making sure their 12-year-old isn’t on the platform, and how active do they need to be in setting up controls that Meta has provided for them to monitor their child’s online activity.
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All questions being raised as New Mexico moves forward with their $3.7 billion lawsuit against the social media giant trying to prove that Meta is responsible for the mental health issues of minors in the state.
However, Meta is taking the position that by the state asking the court to regulate pretty much everything on the platform – and scrape the personal data of users – the court would be infringing on parental rights and violating the first amendment.
Meta says the parent should be the one to decide what is appropriate for their children, not a court or a state, and the real responsibility lies with the parents to supervise their kids and use the tools Meta already provided like parental controls, teen accounts, time limits, and content filters .
So basically, meta is saying we give parents the controls they need; it’s up to parents (not the government or the courts) to decide how their children use the internet.”
Alex Parkinson petitioned the court to take first amendment rights into account along with section 230 that protects online platforms.
He then pointed out that if New Mexico really thought Meta was a nuisance to the children in its state, the attorney general’s office wouldn’t want them in the state at all, but instead he said, New Mexico is looking to control the platform and have it fund their statewide mental healthcare system for the next 15 years
One of the more simple but impactful things that Parkinson said today – was that if people really wanted to avoid the harm they claim is happening, they would simply put down the phone for a couple of weeks.
