Alabama School Districts File Lawsuits Against Social Media Platforms Over Youth Mental Health Crisis
Three Alabama school districts have filed lawsuits against the major social media platforms alleging them to have created a mental health crisis among children.
“The harm created by social media companies has strained already limited school resources as educators attempt to combat the widespread problems caused by social media addiction,” said Joseph VanZandt, co-lead counsel with the Beasley Allen law firm, one of the three firms suing the companies.
“These lawsuits make it clear to social media companies that they will face consequences for their conduct, not only from the adolescents they harmed but also from the people and institutions supporting our youth.”
Beasley Allen, Wagstaff & Cartmell, and Gonzo & Honnold law firms filed lawsuits (pdf) against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat on the behalf of the Baldwin County Public Schools, Montgomery Public Schools, and the Tuscaloosa City Schools districts.
“In the past decade, youth in America have engaged with Defendants’ products at an exponential rate,” the lawsuit states. “This increase in youth using social media is the direct result of Defendants’ calculated efforts to encourage and addict adolescents to endlessly use their products.”
The lawsuit says the social media platforms have inadequate age verification measures, insufficient parental controls, information feeds designed to keep users in an induced trance, and manipulative reward mechanisms that activate dopamine while providing unhealthy social comparisons.
“These defects, along with others discussed throughout this complaint, cause Defendants’ products to be harmfully addictive, which in turn causes additional related injuries,” the lawsuit states. “Excessive screen time is especially harmful to adolescents’ mental health, sleep patterns, and emotional well-being. Yet, Defendants’ products lack any warnings (to users in general, minor users, or their parents) that foreseeable product use can cause injury to users’ mental and physical health, rendering the products unreasonably dangerous.”
Rather than making their platforms safer, the lawsuit alleges that social media giants prioritize profit by implementing product designs that facilitate addiction.
The lawsuit follow a growing number of other complaints—including one from the state of Arkansas and another from the San Mateo County Board of Education—that are alleging the social media platforms to be manipulative and addictive for children.
Mental Health Crisis
The mental health crisis among children has reached epidemic proportions, to which the social media platforms have largely contributed, the lawsuit alleges.
“Students are experiencing record rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues because of Defendants’ intentional conduct,” the lawsuit states. “These students perform worse in school, are less likely to attend school, more likely to engage in substance use and to act out, all of which directly affects Plaintiffs’ ability to fulfill their educational mission.”
The school districts demand accountability and change from the social media platforms, the lawsuit states.
“Defendants knew or, in the exercise of ordinary care, should have known that their social media products were harmful to a significant percentage of their minor users and failed to re-design their products to ameliorate these harms or warn minor users and their parents of dangers arising out of the foreseeable use of their products,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants intentionally created an attractive nuisance to children, but simultaneously failed to provide adequate safeguards from the harmful effects they knew were occurring.”
The lawsuit alleges that the addictive components of social media were purposefully crafted to exploit “the same neural circuitry” as drugs and gambling, as users’ data is collected for a more narrowly tailored experience for future use.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
The lawsuit cited the Federal Trade Commission’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 that went into effect in April 2000 at the dawn of the internet age.
The federal law was written to protect the online collection of personal information from children under the age of 13.
“None of the Defendants conduct proper age verification or authentication,” the lawsuit states. “Instead, each Defendant leaves it to users to self-report their age. This unenforceable and facially inadequate system allows children under 13 to easily create accounts on Defendants’ apps.”
Instead of using their algorithms to prevent children under 13 from using their platforms, the social media companies instead “turned a blind eye” and violated COPPA.
A ‘Perilous Amalgamation’
In addition, social media presents an exaggerated reality that has been known to leave users feeling “less than” in comparison, the lawsuit states.
“Defendant’s algorithms powerfully sort and promote the most eye-catching content, such as content flaunting lifestyle, appearance, or success,” the lawsuit states. “As a result, individuals browsing their News Feeds are more likely to see posts about friends’ exciting social activities rather than dull days at the office, affording numerous opportunities for comparisons to seemingly better-off others.”
According to the lawsuit, this is known to cause low self-esteem that threatens mental health.
“Social media-induced social comparison often results in a discrepancy between the ideal self and the real self, thus evoking a sense of depression, deprivation, and distress, resulting in an overall aggravation of one’s mental state,” the lawsuit states.
The use of filters and other editing tools creates another layer of a false reality “where all other users on the products appear better looking than they are in fact, often in an artificial way.”
“Filters, especially in combination with other product features, directly cause body image issues, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and related issues,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit called the sum of harms a “perilous amalgamation of intense psychological vulnerability and targeted exploitation” that includes withdrawal from friends and family, lack of focus, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, loss of vision, self-harm, and sometimes even suicide.
Alabama Public Nuisance and Negligence Laws
The school districts’ lawsuit, which was filed in the California state court Judicial Council Coordination Proceeding, alleges that the defendants have violated Alabama public nuisance and negligence laws.
The plaintiffs called for a jury trial, with prayers for relief that include a judge finding the defendants liable.
In addition, the social media companies must cease engaging in further actions violating the Alabama’s public nuisance and negligence laws and award relief, which includes equitable relief to fund prevention education and addiction treatment, as well as statutory damages.
Meta Says Making Changes
The Epoch Times contacted Meta Platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram; Snapchat; ByteDance, the owner of TikTok; and YouTube for comment.
In response, Antigone David, head of safety for Meta Platforms, told The Epoch Times, “We want to reassure every parent that we have their interests at heart in the work we’re doing to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online. We’ve developed more than 30 tools to support teens and their families, including tools that allow parents to decide when, and for how long, their teens use Instagram, age verification technology, automatically setting accounts belonging to those under 16 to private when they join Instagram, and sending notifications encouraging teens to take regular breaks.
“We’ve invested in technology that finds and removes content related to suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders before anyone reports it to us. These are complex issues but we will continue working with experts and listening to parents to develop new tools, features and policies that are effective and meet the needs of teens and their families.”
