The Legal Battle Holding Big Tech Accountable for Child Safety

0:00 Speaker 1 Lynn’s Warriors, saving our kids, saving our grandkids? Well with us today is ben Lynn Shaw? Well if she runs Lynn’s Warriors, well, can you give us an update? How about saving our kids?

0:14 Speaker 2 Good morning, John. The most powerful thing happened this past week. For years, families across America have asked a very basic question, and that John, is if a technology company deliberately designs a product to keep kids coming back, scrolling, engaging, ticking up all their time, when does that stop being merely a content question and become a product safety question. What

0:39 happened last Monday is the ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals allowed litigation, so lawsuits involving more than three thousand, John, three thousand federal lawsuits against Meta, which is Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Google and Snap to continue. That’s over three thousand federal lawsuits.

0:58 The lawsuits alleged that these companies designed This is the important part, they designed social media products in ways that addict and harm young users. So the allegations remained to be proven. But the companies tried so hard and with all their money in their wallets, they could not stop these cases from going forward. But there’s a distinction. I

1:19 want everybody to understand the court did not rule that these companies are liable for harming children. They ruled that the lawsuits can go forward. Because John, these companies for years, I talk about it all the time with you here on the Cats Around table, they hide behind something called Section two thirty of the Communications Decency Act. And to

1:39 go back a little history that was established in nineteen ninety six, thirty years ago. A lot’s changed since then. We had two platforms Inn and what that said at the time thirty years ago is you know what these platforms.

1:51 They are like newstands or billboards. They can’t be held responsible for third party content. But that has stuck John for thirty years. So now this to all change. They stood behind that and the law struck them down. So that means families can keep making their cases about social media harming kids, and also that our parents are empowered

2:11 that finally somebody’s listening to them and taking this very seriously. Because we always talk about big tech as all the money, all the power, How are we going to break through with all of this? But here’s what’s happening. I want everybody to understand. If somebody posts something awful terrible. That’s one kind of legal question. But if a company, the

2:31 big tech company themselves deliberately engineered features and designs to encourage harmful, compulsive use, that that’s the problem. That’s where the lawsuits. We currently had one in New Mexico that started last March a Juriya, twelve American said guilty, guilty, guilty, that was sharing kids data product design. We had California guilty guilty, guilty. You big tech meta are designing a

2:55 product harming kids. So not only that, John, that’s three thousand federal cases. We know in the state of California alone, there are thirty three hundred. We know we have twenty four state attorneys general filing lawsuits. We’ve got municipalities. I don’t know, John, where all this is going to go, but beware, as I’ve always said, they have deep pockets,

3:15 all of these big tech companies, so they are focused right now on AI artificial intelligence. But put that aside while the courts are sorting all of this out. Don’t wait for a judge to parent your child. You have to know what platforms your kids are using. You got to know whether they have multiple accounts. Kids are very

3:33 savvy and smart. They now to do all kinds of tech stuff. Now understand what it means to infinitely scroll, AutoPlay, keep the devices out of the bedrooms, Let kids sleep at night. You must in your home establish a screen free time, maybe it’s twenty minutes a day. You have to talk, talk, talk, John. I tell you this all

3:50 the time to your kids. They’re learning anyway from everything online about sex, stortion, strangers, predation. The kids have to know. Make sure or your child understands this. This may be big text to back on moment, but we’re going to see.

4:05 We can all agree that kids spend too much time online. This is good news. But make sure you follow Lynzswarriors dot org for updates and take actions. John, if I could say one thing is parents have to parent up.

4:17 I know everybody’s busy and overwhelmed, but you’ve got to come to the table in twenty twenty six and watch what your kids are doing. Talk to your kids. You probably bought those devices, you pay for the internet. Do your job.

4:29 Speaker 1 Thank you so much, Lynn Shaw. And let’s defend our kids. And I would say eighty percent of Americans defend me and you on defending our kids. And if with those eighty percent, Congress and the Senate better listen to us.

4:44 Speaker 2 Thank you so much, a man, absolutely, thank you, John