The schools in Seattle are suing tech giants for ruining young people’s mental health

Social Media Use of TikTok and Facebook as Tools for Bringing Down Mental Health and Behavioral Disorders: A Seattle Public School District vs. Facebook

SEATTLE — The public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth.

They are blamed for making it more difficult to educate students and for making mental health and behavioral disorders worse, in addition to forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals.

The complaint says that the defendants have exploited vulnerable brains of the youth and given them positive feedback on their social media platforms. “The content Defendants create is harmful and exploitive.”

Section 200 of the Communication Decency Act helps protect online companies from liability when third-party users post content on their platforms, but the lawsuit says that doesn’t shield tech giants from their behavior.

The lawsuit says that from 2009 to the present there has been a 30% increase in the number of Seattle Public Schools students who report feeling sad or powerless almost every day for two weeks or more.

According to internal studies revealed by Facebook whistle blowers, the company knew that the popular photo sharing website negatively affected teenagers by messing with their body images and making eating disorders worse. She alleged that the platform prioritized profits over safety and hid its own research from investors and the public.

A mother in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said that her daughter is obsessed with TikTok, and will spend hours making videos for the Likes, and will post altered photos of herself online to look better.

Another mother in the same county told CNN her 16-year-old daughter’s ex-boyfriend shared partially nude images of the teen with another Instagram user abroad via direct messages. The mother said that the user posted the pictures on social media due to a failed attempt to blackmail her and her family.

An Attorney’s Lawsuit Against Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat Against Facebook and Google for the Protection and Safety of Children’s Social Media

The need is great to fund mental health outpatient programs, mobile crisis units, family-based mental health services, and in-school mental health programming and training, said the lawsuit, which was filed in California federal court. Bucks County is seeking unspecified monetary damages to help fund these initiatives.

Matthew Weintraub, district attorney of Bucks County, wants to hold companies accountable. It’s no different than manufacturing and distribution of drugs that can cause harm to young people in our communities.

He said that the platforms were not addictive but they were harmful and helpful. There will be a tipping point if there are strong numbers and people from around the country join me. I have to be on top of it and not let it happen.

According to Antigone Davis, the head of safety for Instagram and Facebook-parent Meta, the company continues to put resources into making sure its young users are safe. There are more than 30 tools that the platforms have to help teens and families, including supervision tools that let parents limit the amount of time their kids spend on social media.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said it has also “invested heavily in creating safe experiences for children across our platforms and have introduced strong protections and dedicated features to prioritize their well being.” He pointed to products such as Family Link, which provides parents with the ability to set reminders, limit screen time and block specific types of content on supervised devices.

A Snap spokesperson said it is “constantly evaluating how we continue to make our platform safer, including through new education, features and protections.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/tech/bucks-county-social-media-lawsuit/index.html

The Mother of the 16-year-old whose Instagram photo was shared publicly publicly apologized for sharing it with the State Department of Social Media

Tobias added that increased support for government regulation that would impose more restrictions on companies could impact the outcome of these lawsuits in their favor.

There will be different judges and juries around the country with different views of this. They might win some of the cases, and that might help, but they aren’t going to win every case.

Whatever the outcome, the mother of the 16-year-old whose intimate photos were shared on Instagram is applauding the district attorney’s office for sending a strong message to social media companies.

She said that she would not have given the lawsuit a thought if it had been about her daughter. “But now that I know how hard it was to take content down and there’s only so much people can do; corporations need to do so much more to protect its users.”