Top Takeaways
- School districts across the country are suing social media giants, alleging they have bled resources trying to address a student mental health crisis fueled by their platforms.
- Districts like Los Angeles Unified are seeking monetary relief to help fund the increased demand for school counselors, social workers and mental health support workers.
- Lawyers say the multidistrict lawsuit is the strongest case yet to force companies to change ‘addictive’ platform features, while companies argue that addiction to social media lacks scientific evidence.
Meta, Google, TikTok and other social media companies could soon be compelled to fund student mental health services and redesign features alleged to encourage compulsive use if school districts prevail in a growing wave of lawsuits.
More than 1,000 school districts nationwide — including at least a dozen in California, including Los Angeles Unified School District — argue that social media companies knowingly designed products that harm children’s mental health, and that the cost of addressing the harm has shifted to schools, which have had to expand counseling, crisis intervention and campus safety efforts.
“Excessive social media use has fueled a youth mental health crisis which essentially forces schools to pivot from education to crisis intervention on a daily basis,” said Aelish Baig, a lead attorney representing LAUSD in the federal multidistrict lawsuit. “The costs with these harms include enormous diversion of staff time, and significant cost associated with the increased anxiety and depression, self-harm and suicidality affecting the students.”…