Designed to Foster Addiction in Youth

Recently, a lawsuit was filed against Meta, Snap, ByteDance, and Google at the Los Angeles County branch of the California Superior Court. The plaintiffs included New York City, a school district, and several health care organizations, who cited the companies’ connections to the area. The lawsuit alleges that these tech giants have deliberately designed, operated, and marketed their platforms in a way that attracts and hooks young users, with minimal oversight or control from parents.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, was the one who announced the lawsuit against the parent companies of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube. Adams accuses these platforms of having a detrimental impact on the mental health of children and young adults. In his words, the addictive and oppressive nature of the online world exposes children to a constant stream of harmful content, contributing to a nationwide mental health crisis among young people. He emphasizes, “Today, we are taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis.“

The complaint, which spans 311 pages, clearly outlines the challenges faced by the country’s largest school district, which serves approximately 1 million students. The lawsuit claims that the district has had to deal with disruptions in teaching and learning, both inside and outside the classroom, as a direct result of social media’s impact on students’ mental health. Consequently, the district was forced to offer counseling for anxiety and depression and develop programs specifically tailored to address the effects of social media on young people’s mental health. These additional services and programs reportedly cost more than 100 million dollars a year.

The implicated social media platforms were quick to respond to the allegations. A spokesperson for TikTok stated, “We regularly collaborate with experts to understand emerging best practices, and will continue to work to keep our community safe by addressing challenges common across the industry.” Meta, which has previously faced similar accusations, revealed that they have been working on these issues for a decade. They expressed their commitment to ensuring that teenagers have safe, age-appropriate online experiences and claimed to have more than 30 tools and features in place to support young users and their parents.