A federal judge ruled that Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap must face lawsuits brought by school districts that claim the platforms are addictive to kids and harm their mental health. The school districts argue the companies designed their platforms to addict children with algorithms and features like the “like” button. The schools liken the tech companies’ societal harm to the damage done by cigarette manufacturers.
School districts in 19 states claim these social media companies fail to enforce age verification, parental controls and session timeouts on their platforms. They said this leads to kids endlessly scrolling through targeted algorithms.
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According to the schools, these “addictive algorithms” are creating a mental health crisis among youth. School officials said they have to address these issues with their limited resources.
Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap have all fought to get the lawsuits thrown out. However, the judge will allow roughly 150 cases to proceed.
The judge noted that the social media companies are protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields online companies from being held liable for content posted on their platforms. Because of this federal law, these social media giants will likely avoid liability for more than 600 other cases.
Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap haven’t yet commented on the judge’s ruling.
