SEATTLE: The Seattle Public School District has filed a landmark lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat to hold them accountable for the youth mental health crisis. The Seattle Public Schools filed the lawsuit. on Friday in the US District Court. The 91-page lawsuit says social media companies have sparked public outrage by targeting their products at children. blames them for deteriorating mental health and
behavioral disorders, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders and cyberbullying; hindering the education of students; and compel schools to take actions such as hiring more mental health professionals, developing lesson plans on the impact of social media, and providing additional training for teachers.
"Defendants have efficiently exploited the prone brains of teens, hooking tens of hundreds of thousands of college students throughout the united states into high-quality comments loops of immoderate use and abuse of Defendants' social media platforms," the criticism said. "Worse, the content material Defendants curate and direct to teens is simply too frequently dangerous and exploitive ...."Meta, Google, Snap and TikTok did now no longer without delay reply to requests for remark Saturday.While federal law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — facilitates shield on-line agencies from legal responsibility bobbing up from what third-birthday birthday celebration customers put up on their platforms, the lawsuit argues that provision does now no longer shield the tech giants' conduct on this case.
"The Plaintiff does not allege that the Defendants are responsible for what third parties have said on the Defendants' platforms, but rather for the Defendants' own conduct," the complaint reads. “The defendants expressly recommend and promote content that is harmful to young people, such as B. Pro-anorexia and eating disorder content. The lawsuit states that from 2009 to 2019, the number of Seattle Public Schools students who reported feeling "sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more straight weeks increased by an average of 30%
" that they have halted some typical activities The school district is asking the court to order the businesses to stop causing a public nuisance, award damages, and pay for prevention classes and treatment for excessive and problematic social media use While hundreds of families are suing businesses for damages that allegedly originated by their children through social media, it is unclear if any school district other than
S of Eattle has filed a complaint.
Internal studies revealed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021 showed the company knew Instagram negatively impacted teens by damaging their body image and making eating disorders and suicidal thoughts worse. She claimed that the platform prioritizes profit over safety and hides its own research from investors and the public.