The 91-page complaint, filed on Friday in US District Court by Seattle Public Schools, claims that the social media companies have created a public nuisance by marketing to children.
The Seattle public school district is the latest to join an offensive against the tech behemoths behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat, which are being blamed for the country’s mental health crisis among youth.
The 91-page complaint, filed on Friday in US District Court by Seattle Public Schools, claims that the social media companies have created a public nuisance by marketing to children.
“Defendants successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms,” according to the complaint. “Worse, the content that Defendants curate and direct to youth is far too frequently harmful and exploitative.”
“Schools are struggling not only to provide students with mental health services but also to deliver an adequate education as a result of the youth mental health crisis,” said the Seattle Public Schools lawsuit, which represents a hundred schools and nearly 50,000 students.
The complaint accuses the tech companies of prioritizing profit over the mental health of children. “Defendants have intentionally cultivated a mental health crisis among America’s youth,” according to the lawsuit. “Defendants did so for profit.” Advertisements are the foundation of their business models. “The more time users spend on Defendants’ platforms, the more ads they can sell.”
The school district claims that because their brains are not fully developed and they consequently lack the same emotional maturity and impulse control as adults, young people are more vulnerable to “manipulative behavior” on social media.
The lawsuit claims that social media has contributed to a mental health crisis in schools, which has led to a sharp rise in absenteeism and vandalism. The district says it does not have adequate resources to address the crisis, and wants tech companies to be held accountable for the situation. In 2018, suicides became the second leading cause of death among 10 to 24-year-olds in the US.
In August 2022, the local council approved a $5-million budget to address the mental health crisis. Similar lawsuits are being filed in federal courts across the US, according to Axios. In February, the Northern District of California is set to file a new complaint that argues that platforms such as Instagram are “addictive by design.
“The lawsuits against the tech giants are being compared to the landmark cases brought against tobacco companies in the 1980s and, more recently, against the pharmaceutical companies over their role in the opioid crisis. The plaintiffs are hoping to change the design of social media platforms and strengthen the conditions of use.
Meanwhile, the Louisiana government has recommended that schools ban TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. In this case, the ban is due to concerns over the company’s privacy policy and security. Louisiana is also one of many states to block the video app from government devices.
Last September, California also passed a landmark law to increase online protection for kids. On Tuesday, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced that from February teenagers will only receive ads based on their age and location. ”