Seattle Public Schools is suing the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, asserting the companies are substantially contributing to a youth mental health crisis.
The 90-page lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, alleges the social media companies intentionally market, design and operate their platforms to maximize engagement from young users for profit, and cites research linking social media use to mental and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying.
“This mental health crisis is no accident. It is the result of the Defendants’ deliberate choices and affirmative actions to design and market their social media platforms to attract youth,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit argues the tech companies have violated Washington’s public nuisance law and says SPS seeks “the maximum statutory and civil penalties permitted by law.”
Claiming that school districts are “uniquely harmed” by the youth mental health crisis, the lawsuit states that SPS has had to “divert resources and expend additional resources” to hire counselors, train teachers to recognize mental health issues, and educate students on the dangers of social media platforms, among other measures.
“While the King County Council recently allocated additional resources for school-based services, taxpayers should not bear the burden for the mental health crisis social media companies have created, as explained in the complaint,” said a news release from Keller Rohrback, the law firm representing SPS. “This lawsuit aims to hold these companies accountable for their actions and set youth mental health trends back on the right trajectory.”
The district also cited an “on-average” 30% increase in the number of SPS students who reported feeling “so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row” that they stopped usual activities between 2009 and 2019.
The lawsuit comes after whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed in 2021 internal studies from Facebook that showed the platform knew its Instagram app negatively affected teenagers. Hundreds of families are currently suing the social media companies, according to CBS News.
“Our students — and young people everywhere — face unprecedented learning and life struggles that are amplified by the negative impacts of increased screen time, unfiltered content, and potentially addictive properties of social media,” said SPS Superintendent Brent Jones in the release. “We are confident and hopeful that this lawsuit is the first step toward reversing this trend for our students, children throughout Washington state, and the entire country.”
Between school closures and isolation during the pandemic, Washington officials have sounded the alarm on youth mental health, with Gov. Jay Inslee declaring the situation a crisis last year. The total number of hospitalizations in Washington where the primary diagnosis is psychiatric doubled between 2015 and 2021.
Dean Kawamoto, a lawyer from Keller Rohrback, the law firm representing SPS, said he is not personally aware of any other school district filing for damages against social media companies based on impacts on mental health.
Keller Rohrback also represented the district when it joined other school districts to sue e-cigarette firm Juul Labs and Altria in 2019.
In the coming months, SPS will decide whether it wishes to participate in a global settlement Juul Labs reached last month covering thousands of lawsuits from school districts, city governments, individuals and families of Juul users, and Native American tribes.
SPS plans to continue litigating against Juul Lab’s largest investor, the tobacco giant Altria, according to Keller Rohrback attorney Felicia Craick.
