 Nice to see you all. Thanks for being here on this somewhat chilly day. We are bravely wearing our no jackets because we're hearty vermonters. I want to introduce the folks behind me. I cannot remember your last name. Jacob Montever. I can see it but I can't pronounce it. We're going to start with Jacob Montever who is our investigator and Rislane Sabiani. These folks are newer to me. Jill Abrams is the, Riz is an assistant attorney general. Jill is the director of our consumer unit and Jamie Renner is an assistant attorney general who I used to work with when I was an assistant attorney general. So having set the table on who we are, let's talk about why we're here. There is a growing mental health crisis in Vermont, particularly for teens. We are here today to announce our filing of a lawsuit against Meta and Instagram, the owners and operators of the social media platform Instagram. Specifically Meta and Instagram designed their platform to be addictive and they have been deceptive about the platform's safety. We are suing to hold these corporations accountable for Instagram's contribution to the mental health crisis that is gripping teens across this country. We are not the only state suing Meta today. At this moment across the country 42 other attorneys general are having press conferences just like this one to announce their own lawsuits against Meta. Some of those states are filing their own state court as we are today and others are suing a federal court in California. Let's get into the details of today's lawsuit. The complaint we filed today targets Instagram. It alleges that first Meta designed Instagram to cause young people to use the platform compulsively and excessively. Meta did this to maximize the time that young users spent on Instagram in order to maximize its advertising revenue. As Meta knows, Instagram's design has achieved its goals. Instagram's features are driving young people to use the platform compulsively and excessively. Those of us who use the platform are familiar with these but let me list them. Algorithmic recommendation system, infinite scroll, excessive push notifications, lake counts, view counts, ephemeral content that's content that disappears after certain amount of time like Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours and auto play video features. Meta's conduct is particularly egregious because Meta knows that compulsive and excessive Instagram use is harmful to young people's mental and physical health and it designed the platform the way it did anyway. According to the Surgeon General's warning on social media use which just was released a few months ago, compulsive social media use causes or contributes to and buckle in because this list is kind of long. Anxiety, depression, attention deficit disorders, reduced sleep and sleep problems. Sleep problems among adolescents have been linked to altered neurological development, depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Compulsive social media use has also been linked to changes in the brain structure similar to that of those who are addicted to gambling or substances. Meta's efforts to hook young people on Instagram is also egregious because as Meta knows aside from causing compulsive use, Instagram poses other serious mental health risks to youth. First, Instagram exposes young users to an array of harmful conduct for content. The harmful content for example depicting violence, adult sexual activity, hate speech as well as content promoting eating disorders, self-harm and even suicide. Second, Instagram exposes young people to an array of harmful experiences like negative social comparison, bullying and unwanted sexual advances including from strangers. For youth, negative social comparison is one of the most harmful effects of Instagram use and the algorithm is designed to show more of those types of posts because they are more likely to engage the user and therefore more likely to earn advertising revenue. In an internal study that Meta performed that was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, Meta concluded a few things. One, of teens aged 13 to 17 who feel unattractive, 41% attribute the feeling saying saying it started on Instagram. Of teens who felt they didn't have enough friends, 32% said the feeling started on Instagram. Of teens who felt alone or lonely, 21% said the feeling started on Instagram. Of teens who felt they weren't good enough, 24% said the feeling started on Instagram. Of teens who wanted to hurt themselves, 9% said the feeling started on Instagram and of teens who said they wanted to kill themselves. 6% said it started on Instagram. As Meta knows, Instagram is particularly damaging to teen girls. According to the leaked Meta study, Instagram makes body image issues worse for one in three girls. I'm going to stop for the truck. Sorry. I'm super sorry. Who was that? Okay. All right. That truck really rattled a bunch of us. Okay, we're back on track. Despite all of this, Meta maintains Instagram as is and publicly promotes the narrative that Instagram is neither addictive nor harmful to teens. This lawsuit alleges that Meta's conduct violates the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive acts and practices in commerce. Let's talk about the mental health crisis here in Vermont and what that looks like. We have the Vermont Youth Behavioral Risk Survey that the Vermont Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control performs. And here are some of the statistics to tell us about the mental health crisis here in Vermont among youth. 35% of Vermont high schoolers and 20% of Vermont middle schoolers say they experience poor mental health always or most of the time. 20% of Vermont high schoolers and 20% of Vermont middle schoolers have purposefully hurt themselves. 14% of Vermont high schoolers and 14% of Vermont middle schoolers have at some time made a suicide plan. And 7% of Vermont high schoolers and 6% of Vermont middle schoolers said they had attempted suicide. As a mom, as a Vermonter, as an aunt, this is so disturbing to me. Now is the time for us as a country and a state to target the causes of contributors to teen mental health harms. And that's what this case is about. In short, Instagram is addictive and harmful to youth. There is a mental health epidemic happening among teens across this country. Meta is contributing to that epidemic and we are here today to hold them accountable. Thank you all for coming. I am happy to answer any questions you might have. So when we file our, when we give you the press release, there will be a link to the complaint. And if you go to the end, the prayer for relief will be listed. So you'll have all that. But essentially for the violation of the Vermont Consumer Protection Act is we ask for $10,000 per violation, which is per consumer. So that's the monetary piece in addition to our investigative fees, our attorney's fees and costs. And there's a number of injunctive relief that we're also asking for. And I'm thinking of discouragement as well from, of the profits that were made. Is there specific injunctive relief that we asked for? Not really. So it's, you know, we just filed a suit like 20 minutes ago or something. So that's, we don't have that. That's part of the process of the lawsuit. But yeah. Yeah. So when we ask for attorney's fees and investigation costs and other costs, what we are doing is we track all of our time, all those costs. And at some point in the lawsuit, you know, we will be asking the court for that to grant us those fees and costs. So we'll have that all tracked out. We don't know yet because we've just started, but no, I mean, if it settles next week versus in three years, we go to trial. Who knows. So we wouldn't know. Yeah. Users. Yeah, that's a good question. Do we have that info or can we be public about it? Yeah. So yeah. So you'll also see when you get the complaint, there's a lot that's redacted. And that's because under the terms of our investigation, we have to redact it. So at that point, it's, it's confidential. More will come out as the case goes on. No. It's because under the terms of the investigation, you know, we negotiate those kinds of things. Eventually, they will be made public. But at this point in time, they're not of Instagram users. And I mean, I feel like I personally know tens of thousands of people on Instagram in Vermont, but I don't know. Okay. Yeah. Jamie will give us some statistics. Sure. Hi, my name is Jamie Renner. I'm an assistant attorney general. So the Pew Research Center did a study in 2022 about the number of teens in the US who are Instagram users. And so while we can't speak about specific information, we have about teens in Vermont because that information is confidential right now. What the Pew Research Center study found was that 62% of teens who are aged 13 to 17 are Instagram users and almost 75% of teens who are age 15 to 17 use Instagram. So you can assume for the sake of conversation, that's a national statistic. You know, we will be working through the, through the process of the lawsuit and hopefully have more to say in that as we go. I did bring with me some points that the Surgeon General has of advice on tips for how to protect yourself. I thought you guys might be interested and I could list off some of those on, you know, ways that we can protect ourselves. So there's a bunch, but I'm just some of the ones that really resonated with me. One, create boundaries. So limit the use of your phone, your tablet. First of all, for at least an hour before bedtime and try to help children develop social skills and nurture their in-person relationships and encourage unstructured and offline activities and interactions. Importantly, be cautious about what you share. We know that social media platforms are part of how they make money is off of our data. And also there are personal things to us that make us vulnerable if we share. And especially with children, they want to, you know, we want to educate them about the dangers there. Don't keep any harassment or abuse a secret. Children are encouraged to, you know, tell a teacher, a friend, an adult to get help with that. All of us should get help if we feel that we are being negatively impacted by social media. And also parents should model responsible behavior for their children and set a good example for them. And empowering children is something that's important and can be done by just teaching them about technology and social media. And those are some of the points that are, that were listed both on the American Academy of Pediatrics Guidance and also the Surgeon General. I wanted to mention also the concept of creating a media plan. There is a tool that you can access online through, I think it's the Surgeon General, and like how to create your own family media plan. It's sort of an agreement and a way to hold each other accountable and set expectations for children and also parents and others in the family. So that's another resource that you might be interested in as you write your stories. 42. Yep, 42 states. Well, I can, I can't speak for them. I can speak to why we're assuming here in this court. And that is because the folks that you see before you feel very passionately about this. I feel very passionately about this. And I wanted to control the case. I wanted to be in Vermont. We could be in charge of everything going forward. We've worked really hard on this investigation. And we have been a leader in the investigation in our office. We're really, this day has been, although new to you, it's not to us, it's been a long time coming. And we're really proud to be fighting for Vermont's kids. So we have an office policy of not acknowledging or talking about any investigations that are going on before they're made public. However, I do think it's already public that states are looking at TikTok. So I can acknowledge that, but I can't say anything further. Yes. So we talked a lot about the compulsive excessive behaviors. But the other is the exposure that young people are experiencing too harmful content and experiences. And so we do list that, I mentioned, you know, getting, you know, inappropriate or unwelcome sexual content even from strangers or adults. So yeah, that's part of it. You know, it necessarily because that data collection is part of how they make their money. So it's necessarily a part of it. We're really focused on, you know, the algorithm and all of those components and also the deception that went along with that. So I don't want to give up all of our secrets, but we like filing in state court. Does anyone have a more? There you go. Okay. Jamie pointed out we're focusing on the Vermont Consumer Protection Act. I know you've never seen me at a press conference in front of the federal court. You're just going to start to, yeah, figure it out. Did anyone else have a question? Oh, yeah. So we have our prayer for relief that's listed on the last page of the complaint. You can look at that. Those are the things we're asking the court for. There's always a catch-all whenever you write a complaint, like, or whatever the court thinks is just unfair. And that's in there as well. And as we go on, there'll be a clearer picture. You know, this is the lawsuit that's the Attorney General's job. The legislature, they have their own kind of role to play. And if we get money, that's who will be deciding how to spend it. And that kind of thing. So that's sort of where the scope of our authority and focus is on the lawsuit. Yeah. I would say I am your attorney general. I am proud to fight for you and for kids. And I'm going to keep doing that. I also would refer them to the list that I listed of some tips for parents on how to keep their kids safe online. All right. What all? If you have questions as things come up, you know, once you look at the complaint or you look at the press release and you have questions, just let Lauren know. We're happy to track down the answer. We have a great team. So hopefully you have all the answers that you need. All right. Thanks, everybody. Stay warm.