Seattle: public schools sue Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok for causing 'mental harm' to children
The school district alleged that social media content causes anxiety, depression, eating disorders in students and results in cyberbullying.
Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit against the tech giants that own TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat. The district alleges that students are being recommended harmful online content, which causes mental health crises and behavioral disorders. It also alleges that social media companies not only allow this to happen, but encourage it.
The 91-page lawsuit filed in federal court claims that these platforms have created a public nuisance by targeting their product advertisements at young people and children, causing them anxiety, depression, eating disorders in students and results in cyberbullying.
gov.uscourts Seattle by Voz Media on Scribd
"Unfiltered content and addictive properties"
It further argues that between 2009 and 2019, there was a 30% increase in the number of students who claimed to have felt "so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks" to the point of stopping their usual activities. Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Brent Jones released a statement saying:
Mental health impairment
The district also blames social media for complicating the tasks of educating students and forcing schools to take measures such as hire more mental health professionals, develop curricula on the effects of social media, and provide additional training to teaching staff:
The federal Communications Decency Act shields Internet companies from liability for what third parties post on their platforms. However, the lawsuit argues that the measure does not protect the companies' behavior in this case:
The school district is asking the court to order the companies to stop creating a public nuisance, award compensation, and pay for preventive education and treatment for excessive and problematic social media use.