Nearly 200 school districts sue tech giants over harm caused to kids by social media

Nearly 200 school districts are taking on Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, joining a lawsuit claiming the social media outlets harm students and distract teachers with cyberbullying and mental health issues — not that the odds are in their favor.

That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which is reporting that the “suits have been consolidated in the U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., along with hundreds of suits by families alleging harms to their children from social media.”

“School districts say teachers and administrators waste valuable time responding to cyberbullying and other disciplinary problems, adding new training and school policies around social-media use, and counseling youths whose addiction to online apps is leading to anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts,” the Journal reported.

The Big Tech titans are seeking to dismiss the lawsuits, according to the newspaper, citing Section 230, an internet liability shield that immunizes platforms against civil suits based on third-party speech.

The counter-argument is that the liability shield doesn’t apply because “social-media companies have created an addictive product that pushes destructive content to youth—and that a product, unlike content, doesn’t enjoy Section 230 protections,” the Journal noted.

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released an advisory back in May warning of the potential risks from social media.

“While social media may offer some benefits, there are ample indicators that social media can also pose a risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. Social media use by young people is nearly universal, with up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 reporting using a social media platform and more than a third saying they use social media ‘almost constantly,'” the report said.

“The most common question parents ask me is, ‘Is social media safe for my kids?’ The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health,” Murthy said at the time. “Children are exposed to harmful content on social media, ranging from violent and sexual content, to bullying and harassment. And for too many children, social media use is compromising their sleep and valuable in-person time with family and friends. We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”

There is bipartisan legislation kicking around in Congress that would establish a minimum age of 13 for social media access and require parental consent until age 18.

The Protecting Kids on Social Media Act was introduced in the Senate back in April that would set a national age limit for using social media and require parental consent for anyone under 18 to create a profile.

The proposed bill targets the algorithms Silicon Valley employs to keep kids on their sites, according to Reason Magazine.

“Specifically, it bars children under 13 from creating accounts on social media apps, while greatly curtailing the algorithms that tech companies could deploy on people between the ages of 13 and 17,” the magazine reported, noting that those under 13 “would still be able to view online content, provided they aren’t logged in to an account.”

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Tom Tillison

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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.

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