BRASILIA, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Brazil's Collective Defense

Institute, a consumer rights group, has filed two lawsuits

demanding 3 billion reais ($525.27 million) from the Brazilian

units of TikTok, Kwai and Meta Platforms ( META ) for allegedly

failing to create mechanisms to prevent indiscriminate use of

these social media platforms by minors, according to initial

petitions reviewed by Reuters.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Social media regulation has become a hot topic in Latin

America's largest country after a months-long feud between X

owner Elon Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice resulted

in the company paying hefty fines.

DETAILS

The lawsuits demand the companies create clear data

protection mechanisms and issue warnings about the risks to

children's and teenagers' mental health due to platform

addiction.

The lawsuits are based on a series of studies on the

possible damage caused by unsupervised use of social media,

especially by children and teenagers.

KEY QUOTE

"It is urgent that measures be adopted in order to change

the way the algorithm works, the processing of data from users

under 18, and the way in which teenagers aged 13 and over are

supervised and their accounts created, in order to ensure a

safer, healthier experience ... as is already the case in

developed countries," said lawyer Lillian Salgado, one of the

plaintiffs.

THE RESPONSE

Meta Platforms ( META ) said in a statement that it wants "young

people to have safe and age-appropriate experiences on our apps,

and we have been working on these issues for over a decade,

developing more than 50 tools, resources, and features to

support teens and their guardians."

The company, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp,

also said it had recently announced a new "Teen Account" on

Instagram, which will arrive in Brazil soon and promises to

automatically limit the accounts teenagers can see and who may

contact them.

TikTok said it had not received any notice about the case,

while Kwai, a social media site based around short videos, said

in a statement that user safety is one of its priorities,

specially when it comes to minors.

($1 = 5.7113 reais)