{"id":296174,"date":"2026-09-29T13:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/296174\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T13:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T13:32:12","slug":"fighting-techs-influence-on-kids-emerges-as-a-focus-for-pa-attorney-general-dave-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/296174\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting tech\u2019s influence on kids emerges as a focus for Pa. Attorney General Dave Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spotlight PA<\/a> is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HARRISBURG \u2014 Nearly two years into his first term as Pennsylvania\u2019s chief law enforcement officer, a central project of Dave Sunday\u2019s tenure is emerging: trying to rein in social media companies\u2019 influence on children.<\/p>\n

The Republican attorney general often stays away from hot-button political issues, but has been notably outspoken on Big Tech. It\u2019s an issue Sunday says is personal for him as a father, and one that observers note is helping him build a political brand.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania, along with most other states and U.S. territories, recently won a major settlement<\/a> against Meta after arguing the company designed its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, to attract, engage and addict young users.<\/p>\n

Sunday announced last month that the commonwealth would receive between $516 million and $729 million over the next decade as part of the $17.1 billion deal. (Meta also agreed to safety features for children, like daily use caps, limited use during school and nighttime hours, and stricter age verifications.)<\/p>\n

Sunday inherited the Meta lawsuit from the previous administration, but under his leadership the Office of Attorney General has taken the effort further, filing two other solo lawsuits on similar grounds against TikTok and the parent company of Snapchat in separate county Courts of Common Pleas.<\/p>\n

His office also launched a series of listening sessions at high schools across the commonwealth in the 2025-26 academic year, in which he held closed-door talks with students and administrators about the role things like social media and artificial intelligence played in their lives. It released a report<\/a> on these talks in May.<\/p>\n

Sunday often frames his interest in these issues in the context of wanting to protect children like his 11-year-old son. That was the case during a September panel in New York City where he talked about the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely afraid of the world that he has to grow up in,\u201d Sunday said. \u201cWhen I was a kid, it would take a Herculean effort on some bad guy\u2019s part to come find me. They\u2019d have to come through my house, get through my dad, who used to be a Marine, and it\u2019d be problematic. Any time a kid plugs into the internet \u2014 any type of social media space, gaming system \u2014 they are immediately a potential target.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other attorneys general are also paying particular attention to Big Tech.<\/p>\n

The September panel saw Sunday join his counterparts from California and New Hampshire \u2014 a Democrat and Republican, respectively \u2014 at a conference hosted by The Atlantic to discuss their collaboration on the Meta case and some of their other individual priorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo states have the resources to handle all this by themselves. It literally does not exist,\u201c Sunday told attendees. \u201cAnd so what we have is a coalition of the willing, in a way, of people that want to fight these battles. And we share investigators, we share information, we share legal experts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tech suits are also being pursued by other Pennsylvania officials. In 2023, Pittsburgh Public Schools filed a federal lawsuit<\/a> against Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Several other<\/a> Western Pennsylvania districts followed. Montgomery County filed a similar federal case<\/a> in August against social media companies, including Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and Google.<\/p>\n

The lawsuits have not escaped criticism. Some First Amendment advocates have said the Meta settlement, specifically, could pose a risk<\/a> to freedom of speech and the company\u2019s right to set its own terms. And many LGBTQ advocates<\/a> say the platforms have allowed users to find a sense of community and learn about their own gender identities and sexualities. That could be threatened if their access is restricted.<\/p>\n

Sunday addressed those concerns onstage in New York, arguing the suits are a first step to act quickly, and that policymakers can later adopt changes to existing law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe harm that we observed through our investigations and through just anecdotally being parents and being a prosecutor, was such that something had to be done. Period,\u201d Sunday said.<\/p>\n

Sunday told Spotlight PA his office is in the process of forming a proposal that would change the state\u2019s consumer protection law, a versatile statute first adopted in the late 1960s that forms the basis of his social media litigation. He\u2019ll likely pitch those changes to the General Assembly, he said, though he declined to provide details.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a few tweaks that I think would really put us in a stronger position for success,\u201d Sunday said.<\/p>\n

Stephen Hladik led the consumer protection bureau in the state attorney general\u2019s office in the 1990s and now teaches a related course at Widener University\u2019s law school. He and other legal experts compare Sunday\u2019s deployment of the statute against social media companies to past efforts to regulate the mortgage servicing industry, tobacco companies, and opioid manufacturers and distributors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hladik noted the law has been updated several times to keep pace with digital technologies, and that it may be time to do so again to specifically name some developing scam tactics, like crypto or those implementing artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s future<\/p>\n

Often, attorneys general follow up successful lawsuits in another way: By parlaying their experience into bids for higher office.<\/p>\n

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, for instance, built large parts of his reputation on defending Pennsylvania\u2019s 2020 presidential results as attorney general, as well as by releasing<\/a> a probe into allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic Church clergy.<\/p>\n

Alexander Bradley worked as a communications aide for Shapiro when the Democrat was attorney general. Bradley said representing the public interest through lawsuits and building a positive political brand among voters often go hand in hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to do good things,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cI think that voters see that, and reward that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hladik agreed, saying high-profile cases \u201cinherently have political benefits\u201d for the attorney general. However, he said each of the three officeholders he served under had the public\u2019s interest as their main priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t represent an individual consumer, you can\u2019t represent an individual claim,\u201d Hladik said. \u201cIt has to be \u2026 for the benefit of the citizens of the commonwealth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday told Spotlight PA the idea that his tenure as attorney general could build a platform to run for future office, like governor, does not cross his mind \u2014 a message he tells people \u201call the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful for the opportunity to be the attorney general,\u201d Sunday told Spotlight PA. \u201cI far exceeded the world\u2019s expectations for my professional life, and I\u2019m grateful for it. It means a lot to me. And what I care about is showing voters that I\u2019m fighting for them on the things that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

BEFORE YOU GO\u2026 If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org\/donate. This story was funded in part thanks to the support of the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund. Learn more about how we are supported here.<\/a><\/p>\n

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