Companies behind social media platforms like Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, among others, are being sued for spreading harm to teenage mental health by public schools in Seattle. The 91-page lawsuit was filed on Friday at the U.S. District Court.
The schools blame tech giants for allegedly putting the mental health of "America’s youth" at risk claiming that they design harmful products that “exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of their users” and force them to spend more time using these platforms. The lawsuit adds that the harmful content viewed by young minds on social media deteriorates students’ performance in schools and mentions they are “ less likely to attend school, more likely to engage in substance use, and to act out, all of which directly affects Seattle Public Schools’ ability to fulfill its educational mission.” It highlights that in ten years from 2009 to 2019, Seattle schools saw a 30% increase in reports of students feeling "so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that [they] stopped doing some usual activities.”
The lawsuit states: “Defendants have 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. Worse, the content Defendants curate and direct to youth is too often harmful and exploitive (e.g., promoting a “corpse bride” diet, eating 300 calories a day, or encouraging self-harm).”
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