New York Sues Tech Giants for Fueling Mental Health Crisis
New York City, its schools and public hospital system announced a lawsuit against the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, blaming their "addictive and dangerous" social media platforms for fueling a childhood mental health crisis.
Children and young teenagers are especially susceptible to harm because their brains are not fully developed, the lawsuit said.
The country's largest school district, with about 1 million students, has had to respond to disruptions in and out of the classroom, provide counseling for anxiety and depression, and develop curricula about the effects of social media and how to stay safe online, according to the 311-page filing.
The city spends more than $100 million on youth mental health programs and services each year, Mayor Eric Adams' office said.
Adams said the online world is addictive and exposes young people to a "non-stop stream of harmful content."
The legal action is the latest of several lawsuits filed by states, school districts and others claiming social media companies exploit young people by designing features that keep them endlessly scrolling and checking their accounts.
Teenagers know they spend too much time on social media but are powerless to stop, according to the new lawsuit.
In responses to the filing, the tech companies said they continue to develop and implement policies and controls that emphasize user safety.
José Castañeda, a spokesperson for YouTube parent Google, said that the claims made in the filing are "simply not true." He added that the company has worked with youth, mental health and parenting experts to understand best practices in the face of industry-wide challenges.
A spokesperson for TikTok said that the company has safeguards in place to support teens' well-being, "including age-restricted features, parental controls, an automatic 60-minute time limit for users under 18, and more."
Virtually all US teenagers use social media, and roughly one in six teens describe their use of YouTube and TikTok as "almost constant," according to the Pew Research Center.
