School districts sue tech giants over youth mental health crisis

avatar
by Samuel Pordengerg Mar 19, 2023 News
School districts sue tech giants over youth mental health crisis

There are logos for some social media applications on a phone. The photo was taken by Chesnot.

A number of school districts are accusing social media companies of contributing to a mental health crisis.

The first lawsuit was filed by Seattle Public Schools in January, accusing social media companies of violating Washington state's public nuisance law.

  • Similar lawsuits were filed last month in Florida and New Jersey.

California's San Mateo County Board of Education and the district's administrator, Nancy Magee, filed a lawsuit last Monday accusing video sharing sites of creating an "unprecedented mental health crisis."

  • The suit alleged that the companies used artificial intelligence and machine learning to intentionally design "their platforms to be addictive and to deliver harmful content to youth."
  • Pennsylvania's Bucks County filed a lawsuit last Wednesday in California federal court alleging that the companies running TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube have fueled the youth mental health crisis by designing and marketing their platforms in ways that "encourage youth addiction."
  • “For too long these companies have exploited developing minds without consequence, exchanging our children’s mental wellbeing for billions of dollars in ad revenue,” Bucks County Commissioner Chair Bob Harvie said in a press release.

There is a connection between heavy social media use and mental health issues in children.

  • The San Mateo lawsuit points to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed youth were experiencing rising rates of poor mental health and suicide risk.

Social media companies argue that younger users won't abandon these apps but it's important for parents to play a role in making sure kids are using them in a healthy manner.

  • A Google spokesperson referred Axios back to a previous comment, saying, "we have invested heavily in creating safe experiences for children across our platforms and have introduced strong protections and dedicated features to prioritize their well being."
  • "Nothing is more important to us than the wellbeing of our community," a spokesperson for Snapchat told Axios in a statement, adding, "we are constantly evaluating how we continue to make our platform safer, including through new education, features and protections."