More than 40 school districts in 10 US states are suing social media giants including Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok over claims they “knowingly harm children” with their “evil” algorithms.
Schools are demanding damages for the larger mental health teams they now need to deal with the crisis. They also point out that social media has fueled an increase in dangerous trends, such as the “Blackout Challenge” in which children strangle themselves.
Facebook-owned Instagram has come under repeated fire for promoting self-harming content, while other platforms have been accused of making children insecure, especially teenage girls.
However, critics say the lawsuits are unlikely to be successful, suggesting it will be too difficult to prove that social media companies caused the mental health crisis. They suggest that schools cannot sue sources of “social ills” that cause damage to their property.
School districts say social media is harming kids and demand redress for the bigger mental health services they need now (stock image)
The poor mental health of American children is now at an all-time high. The CDC has found that 57 percent of girls in high school now struggle with lingering feelings of sadness or hopelessness. In boys, the level is 29 percent
Social media companies have responded to the lawsuits by saying parental controls are already available on their platforms.
They also say they continue to work hard to remove content that promotes suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.
American youth are in crisis, experts say, especially teenage girls, whose numbers say they constantly feel sad or hopeless have jumped from 36 to 57 percent within a decade.
The percentage saying they are seriously considering attempting suicide has also risen to 30 percent, compared to 19 percent a decade earlier.
Experts have blamed multiple factors for the upswing, including overbearing parents and disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic.
They have also suggested that social media may be a major cause, as it encourages people to compare themselves to others, addiction and ‘FOMO’ or fear of missing out.
Teens are more vulnerable to this, they said, because they are much more concerned about what others think of them.
There has also been a rise in the number of high school students considering attempting suicide, the CDC said, from 19 to 30 percent
In filing the latest lawsuit last week in Federal District Court in San Francisco County, the Frantz advocacy group said: “We allege that Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube and other social media companies have engaged in reckless and negligent misconduct that constitutes a clerical health has caused crisis among our youth.
“Social media companies are and were well aware of the damage they cause.
“It has to stop, and we will fight to hold these social media companies accountable for putting profit over the mental health and safety of children and their families.”
The trial involves 16 schools in nine states, including six in California, three in Oklahoma and one each in Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Utah, Pennsylvania and Idaho.
It says that children’s ability to succeed in school is severely compromised by mental health problems caused by social media.
They add that many children and students are often victims of harmful and exploitative content viewed online.
Schools are demanding damages from social media companies, although an amount has not yet been disclosed.
Seattle Public Schools, one of the largest in Washington, was the first to sue social media companies over children’s mental health in early January.
Since then, legal action has been taken with two counties in New Jersey and one in California before a 109-page lawsuit was filed by all 23 counties in San Mateo County, near San Francisco.
In San Mateo, schools are seeking damages for the “cunning lick” challenge, in which children made off with soap dispensers, exit signs and even microscopes before posting the videos on social media.
This lawsuit points to rising rates of mental health problems among teens and says the rising popularity of social media is “tracking exactly” the decline in mental health.
But lawyers warn that the lawsuits are unlikely to go far as it will be difficult to prove that the mental health crisis was caused by social media.
Dr. Eric Goldman, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University in California Law. com“Think of all the things that are social ills that manifest on school grounds – drugs, political strife, domestic violence.”
‘Can schools sue all potential sources of social abuse for nuisance? Can they sue the drug dealers for nuisance? Can they sue the gang organizers for nuisance? All of that makes no sense.
“It’s a social problem that needs to be addressed through traditional law enforcement tools — not school districts taking over the legislature to make their own policies and enforcement.”
He added, “It is my position that it is unlikely that the school districts have the authority to claim the damages actually attributed to students’ personal lives.
“One way to think about it is that school districts shouldn’t be bringing these lawsuits because they’re not the right interest groups.”
He added that so many schools likely took the action because they were not asked to cover any initial costs.
“If the plaintiff’s attorneys get a share of the economic benefits, they want to line up as many school districts as possible,” he said.
Antigone Davis, head of security at Meta, which owns Facebook, responded by saying, “We want to reassure every parent that we put their best interests at the heart of the work we do to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online.
“We’ve developed over 30 tools to support teens and their families, including tools that help parents decide when and how long their teens use Instagram, age-verification technology that automatically sets accounts for those under 16 to private when they close join Instagram and send notifications to encourage teens to take regular breaks.
“We have invested in technology that finds and removes content related to suicide, self-harm or eating disorders before anyone reports it to us.
“These are complex issues, but we will continue to work with parents, experts and regulators like the state attorneys general to develop new tools, features and policies that meet the needs of teens and their families.”
A Snap spokesperson said: “Nothing is more important to us than the well-being of our community.
“At Snapchat, we curate content from well-known creators and publishers and use human review to review user-generated content before it can reach a large audience, which significantly reduces the spread and discovery of harmful content.
“We also work closely with leading mental health organizations to provide in-app tools for Snapchatters and resources to help support both themselves and their friends. We are constantly evaluating how we can continue to make our platform more secure, including through new training, features and security.”