District lawsuits assert social media companies purposefully exploit youth Fast becoming a major issue, school districts throughout the country are suing social media companies, alleging that they have knowingly, deliberately and intentionally contributed to a mental health crisis among the nation’s youth. As of April 2023, more than 40 school districts across the United States have filed a lawsuit against social media giants such as Meta (owner of Facebook), Snap, Alphabet (owner of Google) and TikTok, claiming that these companies are purposefully designing, marketing and promoting their social media products and platforms to be addictive and to deliver harmful content to youth....

The school districts’ complaints connect the explosion of youth mental health issues to excessive use of social media. Typically, the complaints allege that, for profit, social media companies use artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to design their platforms to manipulate and exploit the youths and cause them to be addicted to their platforms.

Since school districts are at the forefront of educating young people, it is at least arguable that they are well-placed to pursue measures to protect their students from a wide array of detrimental mental health disorders such as self-harm, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and suicide, when such disorders are being manifested at school. Taking steps to address the crisis would be consistent with the educational mission of school districts since they are charged with providing their students with a safe and positive school climate....

Local educational agencies are not alone in their concerns. At the federal and state levels, legislative efforts are ongoing to protect young people against what is seen as exploitative behavior by social media companies. The U.S. Senate, for instance, has introduced an amendment to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that, among other things, will nationally ban targeted advertising to children and establish a “Digital Marketing Bill of Rights for Teens” to limit the collection of teens’ personal information. ...”

For more on this, see

>Youth and Socially Interactive Technologies

>Social Media’s Impact on Young People

>Social networking and peer relationships

>The Good and Bad of Social Networking use by Children and Adolescents

We look forward to hearing from you.

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For a range of resources related to this matter,
see: National Initiative for Transforming Student and Learning Supports in 2016

Previously highlighted hot issues

• About Social Media and Youth Mental Health

• Is current advocacy for more and more student support professionals interfering with efforts to transform student/learning supports?

• Backlash to Prevailing Support Services?

• Outsourcing, Contracting Out – PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION

• The Continuing Trend to Overspecialize Special Assistance

• Can there be too much emphasis on gathering more data?

• Concerns about Personalizing Teaching

• Arguments About Overdiagnosis of ADHD

• Moving Beyond the Concept of Integrated Student Supports

• Special Education Disputes Continue to Reflect the Many Issues that Permeate the Field

• Maintaining Momentum for Sound Systemic Changes When the Superintendency Changes

• And Yet Another Discrete Initiative!

• Enabling Learning: It's a Bigger Policy Problem than Most Education Reformers Appreciate

• Reporting on Teacher Effectiveness: The Discussion Heats Up

• Reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act and Addressing Barriers to Learning

• Grade Retention: What's the Prevailing Policy and What Needs to be Done?
• Suicide Prevention in Schools
• Should Policy Specify a Formal Role for Schools Related to Mental Health?
• Screening Mental Health Problems in Schools

• What’s the Best Way to Shape the New Education Act to Enhance Equity of Opportunity?

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