A New Lawsuit Against Social Media Involves 100 Schools in the US

Seattle city school district files a novel lawsuit blaming Big Tech for poisoning youth with social media addiction, saying schools can’t fulfill their educational mission while students suffer anxiety, depression and Others suffer from psychological troubles.

Alphabet Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, Snap Inc and TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd are responsible for engaging youth on their platforms and creating a mental health crisis, according to a complaint filed late Friday in Seattle federal court. The district includes over 100 schools and serves approximately 50,000 children.

The lawsuit appears to be the first of its kind brought by a school district in the US, following similar claims filed by several families last year that blamed more than a dozen tech companies for the suicides. Was.

The idea that social media companies bear responsibility for the potential harm their products cause to youth came to the fore in late 2021 when former Meta employee Frances Haugen unearthed documents about their internal operations. Among Haugen’s allegations was a claim that the company was deliberately preying on vulnerable youths in order to increase profits. Congress held hearings and some state attorneys general began investigations.

Companies’ front line of defense is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a 1996 federal law that gives Internet platforms broad immunity from claims over harmful content posted by users. The law has so effectively shielded them from legal claims that both the political left and right have called for its reform.

“We’ve invested heavily in creating a safe experience for children on our platform and have introduced strong protections and dedicated features to prioritize their well-being,” Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said in an email. “For example, through Family Link, we offer parents the ability to set reminders, limit screen time, and block specific types of content on supervised devices.”

Meta declined to comment. Representatives for Snap and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The companies have previously said they are working to protect their youngest users, including offering resources on mental health topics and improving safeguards to prevent the spread of harmful content.

And in a more recent example of pushback against how technological advances are encroaching on children’s lives, the New York City public school system – the largest in the US – this week gave its students access to the ChatGPT artificial intelligence program to generate lessons. banned from

In Friday’s suit, Seattle School District No. 1 is asking a judge to find that the companies have created a public nuisance and order remedies including monetary damages and funds to prevent and treat the excessive use of social media. Have given.

The district said it has seen a dramatic increase in suicides and emergency room mental health visits. It cited President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union address, in which he asked everyone to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they are conducting on our children for profit”.

According to the complaint, “Seattle School District No. 1 brings this action to do exactly that.” “Youth in Plaintiff’s community are facing the same mental health crisis seen nationally.”

The case is Seattle School District No. 1 v. Meta Platforms Inc., 23-CV-00032, US District Court for the Western District of Washington (Seattle).

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)