Seattle Schools Sue TikTok, Instagram, More For Harming Youth In Landmark Move

The largest K-12 system in Washington has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, alleging the popular social media platforms were responsible for worsening mental health among its students. 

Seattle Public Schools, which oversees 49,000 students and 106 institutions, launched the complaint on January 6, 2023, in hopes of setting a precedent that would hold social networks responsible, and uphold the “maximum statuary and civil penalties permitted by law.” 

According to Mashable, the lawsuit included a survey showing that from 2009 to 2019, students experienced a 30% increase in feeling “so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that [they] stopped doing some usual activities.” 

These depressive traits, no doubt contributing to a widespread mental health crisis, is “no accident,” posits the complaint. In fact, it points directly to the social media companies’ “deliberate choices and affirmative actions” to target the youth. 

As per GeekWire, the lawsuit is taking on the conglomerates under the state’s public nuisance law, as hundreds of families across the country file their own cases against the networks after Facebook admitted its applications make teens “feel worse.” 

Will the lawsuit, which cites President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union speech to “hold social media platforms accountable” see these networks admit culpability? And will it cause other school districts in the nation to file join the fight? Only time will tell. 

[via Mashable and GeekWire, cover image via Mikhail Primakov | Dreamstime.com]