Facebook‘s parent company Meta disabled only a small fraction of the over one million reports it received of underage users on Instagram since early 2019, a lawsuit filed by 33 US states reportedly said. The newly unsealed legal complaint accused the tech giant of carrying an “open secret” that it had millions of users under the age of 13, and that Instagram “routinely continued to collect” their personal information such as location without parental permission. The complaint stated that within the company, Meta’s actual knowledge that millions of Instagram users were under the age of 13 was an “open secret” that was routinely documented, rigorously analyzed and confirmed, and zealously protected from disclosure to the public, according to a New York Times report. Last month, attorneys general from 33 states, including New York’s AG Letitia James, filed a lawsuit against Meta alleging that the tech giant designed harmful features contributing to the country’s youth mental health crisis. The lawsuit alleged Meta created addictive and “psychologically manipulative” features targeting young people while assuring the public falsely that the platform was safe to use. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” Ms James said. Meta’s spokesperson responded to the lawsuit, saying that the company was committed to providing teens with “safe, positive experiences online,” and that it had already introduced “over 30 tools to support teens and their families” such as age verification and preventing content promoting harmful behaviours. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” the spokesperson added. However, a significant portion of the evidence provided by the states was obscured from public view via redactions in the initial filing. The new unsealed complaint filed last week provided fresh insights from the lawsuit, including the accusation that Instagram “coveted and pursued” underage users for years and that Meta “continually failed” to make effective age-checking systems a priority. The lawsuit reportedly argued that Meta chose not to build effective systems to detect and exclude underage teen users, viewing them as a crucial next generation demographic it needed to capture. It also accused the tech giant of “automatically” ignoring some reports of under 13 users and allowing them to continue using the platform while knowing about such cases via the company’s internal reporting channels. The company responded that the now publicly revealed complaint “mischaracterizes our work using selective quotes and cherry-picked documents.” It said verifying the ages of its users was a “complex” challenge especially with younger people who likely do not have IDs or licenses. Meta recently said it supports federal legislation requiring app stores to get parents’ approval whenever their teens under 16 download apps. “With this solution, when a teen wants to download an app, app stores would be required to notify their parents, much like when parents are notified if their teen attempts to make a purchase,” the company said. “Parents can decide if they want to approve the download. They can also verify the age of their teen when setting up their phone, negating the need for everyone to verify their age multiple times across multiple apps,” it said. The tech giant holds that the best solution to support young people is a “simple, industry-wide solution” where all apps are held to the same standard. “By verifying a teen’s age on the app store, individual apps would not be required to collect potentially sensitive identifying information,” Meta recently said. Read More Russia places Meta spokesperson on wanted list Meta to allow users to delete Threads accounts without losing Instagram Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Nasa has received a signal from 10 million miles away Elon Musk set to meet Netanyahu and hostage families in Israel Elon Musk weighs in on Dublin riots claiming country’s PM ‘hates the Irish people’

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Spotify has increased the subscription prices of its premium plan in many parts of the world, with an individual plan going up by £1 in the UK. The price rise comes following Spotify chief Daniel Ek suggesting during an April earnings call that there could be an increase in subscription fee soon. The changes also come as other streaming platforms, including Netflix and Apple Music raised their subscription prices recently. “The market landscape has continued to evolve since we launched. So that we can keep innovating, we are changing our Premium prices across a number of markets around the world,” the audio steaming giant noted in a blog post on Monday. “These updates will help us continue to deliver value to fans and artists on our platform,” it said. In the US, the company said the premium plan for individuals would now cost $10.99 (£8.55) a month up from the charge of $9.99 (£7.77) it has levied since the platform’s launch in 2011. Along with the price rise for a single individual premium subscription plan, the cost of Duo is increasing from $12.99 (£10.11) to $14.99 (£11.6), and for the Family plan from $15.99 (£12.44) to $16.99 (£13.22), and the one for students from $4.99 (£3.88) to $5.99 (£4.66). “We will raise it and that price increase will go down well because we’re delivering a lot of value for our customers,” Mr Ek said, noting that the changes would happen “when the timing is right.” Spotify said users would be given a “one-month grace period” before the new prices take effect. Other countries where the new price regime will take effect include Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland and France, among several others. “Starting from today, existing subscribers in these markets will receive an email explaining what this means for their account,” the company said. “We occasionally update our prices as we continue to innovate and invest in giving you better listening experiences and more value than ever before.” Read More Sony has officially unveiled the new WF-1000XM5 wireless earbuds – here’s everything you need to know WWF capitalizes on death of Twitter bird logo to highlight real species facing extinction Watch the moment Twitter blue bird sign is taken down from San Francisco HQ

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