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On May 14th, lawyers representing MOIGE (Italian Parents' Movement) and numerous families will meet with Meta and TikTok representatives in Milan Civil Court to demand something that, until recently, would have seemed like legal science fiction: a structural change in the functioning of social media platforms mandated by law to protect the mental and physical health of young Italian users. Not compensation. Not a fine. But a change to the product itself. This is an unprecedented situation. For the first time, the central charge is not general negligence or invasion of privacy, but biological damage, specifically permanent damage to adolescents' cerebral development. The plaintiffs' case is built on robust, well-documented neuroscientific grounds. Intermittent notifications, likes, autoplay videos, and limitless scrolling were created using the same logic as slot machines: not the certainty of reward, but its unpredictability, which is what drives addiction. The accumulation of numerous inputs in a developing brain, such as that of an adolescent, risks irreversibly altering its design.
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