Maryland school district sues Meta, Google and TikTok over mental health crisis

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A Maryland school district is suing ByteDance, owner of Meta, Google, Snap and TikTok, for allegedly contributing to a mental health crisis among students. A lawsuit filed Thursday by the Howard County Public School System says the social networks operated by these companies are dangerous and harmful products that have rewired the way children think, feel and behave.

The lawsuit cites a long list of issues on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok that it accuses of harming children. This includes the (alleged) dopamine-triggering rewards on each app, such as the TikToks For You page, which leverages user activity data to deliver an endless stream of suggested content. It also mentions Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms and recommendation features designed to create harmful cycles of repetitive and excessive product use.

Additionally, the school district accuses each platform of encouraging unhealthy and negative social comparisons, which in turn cause body image issues and related mental and physical disorders in children. Other parts of the lawsuit address flawed parental controls in each app, along with security loopholes that are claimed to promote child sexual exploitation.

Over the past decade, the defendants have relentlessly pursued a growth-at-all-costs strategy while recklessly ignoring the impact of their products on children’s mental and physical health, the lawsuit says. In a race to corner the valuable but untapped market of preteen and adolescent users, each Defendant designed product features to promote repetitive and uncontrollable use by children.

The Howard County public school system is far from the only school district that has decided to take legal action against social media companies as of late. In addition to two other school districts in Maryland, school systems in Washington state, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Tennessee and others have filed similar lawsuits over the negative effects social media has had on the mental health of children. children .

We’ve invested in technology that finds and removes content relating to suicide, self-harm or eating disorders before anyone reports it to us, says Antigone Davis, head of security at Metas, in an emailed statement to The Verge . These are complex issues, but we will continue to work with parents, experts and regulators such as state attorneys general to develop new tools, features and policies that meet the needs of teens and their families.

Google denies the allegations outlined in the lawsuit, with company spokesman Jos Castaeda saying in a statement to The Verge, “In partnership with child development specialists, we’ve created age-appropriate experiences for kids and families on YouTube and provide to solid parental checks.Meanwhile, Snap spokesman Pete Boogaard says the company’s vet[s] all content before it can reach a large audience, which helps protect against the promotion and discovery of potentially harmful material. ByteDance did not immediately respond to The Verges’ request for comment.

Critics have drawn attention to the potential impact of social media on children and teenagers, particularly after Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen came forward with a series of internal documents that indicated Meta knew of the potential harm Instagram had on some young users. Last week, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a public advisory calling social media a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.

Some states have responded to the safety concerns posed by social media by enacting laws that prevent children from joining social media sites. While Utah will block children under 18 from using social media without parental consent starting next year, Arkansas has passed similar legislation that prevents minors from joining social networks. At the same time, a flurry of national online safety laws, some of which could implement some kind of online age verification system, has come to Congress despite warnings from civil liberties and privacy advocates.

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