Child Safety Online | Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

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<h4>Resolution Details</h4>
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<strong>Company:</strong>
<p>Meta (Facebook Inc.)</p>
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<strong>Year:</strong>
<p>2025 </p>
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<strong>Issue Area:</strong>
<p>Human Rights & Worker Rights </p>
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<strong>Focus Area:</strong>
<p>Human Trafficking/Exploitation </p>
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<strong>Status:</strong>
<p>Filed</p>
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<h2>Resolution Text</h2>
<p class=”p1″>Social media impacts children’s brains differently than adult brains.1 It also poses physical and psychological risks that children and teens are unprepared for, including sextortion, grooming, hate group recruitment, human trafficking, cyberbullying, harassment, invasion of privacy, financial scams, and exposure to sexual, violent or self-harm content, among others.</p>
<p class=”p3″>Meta is the world’s largest social media company with billons of children and teen users. Meta’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, have been linked to numerous child safety impacts including:</p>
<p class=”p5″>Mental Health:</p>
<p class=”p6″>Meta’s own research shows Instagram’s negative impacts on teens’ self-image, increased rates of depression and anxiety, and increased suicidal thoughts.2 Forty-two states sued Meta claiming</p>
<p class=”p7″>Facebook and Instagram algorithms are intentionally addictive and harm kids’ mental health.3 The United States (U.S.) Surgeon General called for social media warning labels due to its impact on kids’ mental health.4</p>
<p class=”p5″>Sexual Exploitation:</p>
<p class=”p9″>In 2023, nearly 36 million cases of online child sexual abuse material were reported; nearly 31 million of those (85 percent) stemmed from Meta platforms.5 Meta has started encrypting Messenger despite urgent warnings from law enforcement and child protection organizations that encryption will hide millions of reports, cloak the actions of child predators, and make children more vulnerable.6 Instagram’s algorithms “connect and promote” a vast pedophile network by guiding pedophiles to sellers of child sexual abuse materials.7 Instagram is ranked first and Facebook second as sources of sextortion, which has also led to teen suicides.8</p>
<p class=”p5″>Cyberbullying:</p>
<p class=”p6″>“[N]early 80% of teens are on Instagram and more than half of those users have been bullied on the platform.”9 A United Kingdom study ranked Instagram first, Facebook second, and WhatsApp fourth in youth cyberbullying.10</p>
<p class=”p5″>Data Privacy / Age Verification:</p>
<p class=”p11″>In 2022, Meta was fined over $400 million for failing to safeguard children’s information on Instagram.11 Internal documents show Meta did little about millions of underage users.12</p>
<p class=”p5″>Legislation:</p>
<p class=”p13″>The European Union’s Digital Services Act requires identifying, reporting and removing child sexual abuse material.13 The United Kingdom’s Online Safety bill aims to protect children from online fraud and harmful content. The U.S. proposed Kids Online Safety Act requires companies to prevent or mitigate child risks including suicide, eating disorders and substance abuse.” 14 1</p>
<p class=”p3″>Meta is facing significant regulatory, reputational, and legal risks due to these unabated issues.</p>
<p class=”p3″>Meta’s website lists new steps taken to improve child safety, but it has no publicly available, company- wide child safety or harm reduction performance targets for investors and stakeholders to judge the effectiveness of Meta’s announced tools, policies and actions.</p>
<p class=”p17″><strong>Resolved: </strong>Shareholders request that the Board of Directors publishes a report (prepared at reasonable expense, excluding proprietary information) that includes targets and quantitative metrics appropriate to assessing whether and how Meta has improved its performance globally regarding child safety impacts and actual harm reduction to children on its platforms.</p>
<p class=”p19″>1 https://www.apa.org/news/apa/2022/social-media-children-teens</p>
<p class=”p20″>2   https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739</p>
<p class=”p21″>3 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/11/03/meta-lawsuit-attorney-generals-pursue-social-media- accountability/71410913007/</p>
<p class=”p22″>4   https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/17/media/surgeon-general-social-media-apps-warning-label/index.html</p>
<p class=”p21″>5 https://www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/cybertipline/cybertiplinedata</p>
<p class=”p21″>6 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/technology/meta-messenger-encryption.html</p>
<p class=”p21″>7 https://www.wsj.com/articles/instagram-vast-pedophile-network-4ab7189</p>
<p class=”p21″>8 https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_TrendsInFinancialSextortion_June2024.pdf</p>
<p class=”p23″>9 https://time.com/5619999/instagram-mosseri-bullying-artificial-intelligence</p>
<p class=”p21″>10 https://techjury.net/blog/cyberbullying-statistics</p>
<p class=”p21″>11  https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/meta-fined-400m-for-failing-to-protect-childrens-privacy-on-instagram</p>
<p class=”p21″>12 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/technology/instagram-meta-children-privacy.html</p>
<p class=”p21″>13   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/opinion/social-media-facebook-transparency.html?smid=em-share</p>
<p class=”p21″>14  https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protecting-kids-online-bipartisan-cause-senators/story?id=97195752</p>
<p class=”p21″>15  https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/kosa-kids-online-safety-act-speech-censor-rcna128249</p>

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<h3>Lead Filer</h3>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Michael Passoff</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Proxy Impact</span></div>
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<h3>Co-filer</h3>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Laura Krausa</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>CommonSpirit Health</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Lisa Cox</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Christian Brothers Investment Services</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Sister Lynn Meadows</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Benedictine Sisters, Sacred Heart Monastery of Cullman, Alabama</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Aditi Rukhaiyar</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Investor Alliance for Human Rights</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Timnit Ghermay</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Congregation des Soeurs des Saints Noms de Jesus et de Marie</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Timnit Ghermay</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Northwest Women Religious Investment Trust</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Timnit Ghermay</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of Providence, Mother Joseph Province</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Timnit Ghermay</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, WA</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Timnit Ghermay</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, US Ontario Province</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Caroline Boden</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Adrian Dominican Sisters</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Caroline Boden</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Congregation of St. Joseph, OH</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Caroline Boden</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Daughters of Charity, Province of St Louise</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Caroline Boden</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Cathy Rowan</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Maryknoll Sisters</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Simon Doong</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Portico Benefit Services (ELCA)</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Pegge Boehm</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, SD</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Ann Roberts</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Dana Investment Advisors</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Josie Chrosniak</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of the Humility of Mary, OH</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Barbara McCracken</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica</span></div>
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<div class=”views-field views-field-nothing”><span class=”field-content”> Sr. Jean Anne Panisko</span></div><div class=”views-field views-field-title views-field-field-shareholder”><span class=”field-content”>Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth</span></div>
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