Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or Snapchat are targeted.

Marked by growing anxiety and depression among students and suicide attempts, public school officials in Seattle, USA, have filed a lawsuit against social networks, accusing them of "attacks" on mental health of young audiences.

Always sell more

Public school officials in the northwest Washington town say they want to "hold social media companies accountable for the harm they have caused to the social, emotional and mental health of their children. students,” according to a press release.

“The increase in suicides, attempted suicides and mental health-related emergency room visits is no coincidence.

(…) This crisis was already worsening before the pandemic and research has identified social networks as playing a major role in the onset of mental health problems in young people,” they add.

In this complaint, filed on Friday, and which AFP was able to consult on Sunday, they accuse these companies of having exploited "the psychology and neurophysiology of their users so that they spend more and more time on their platforms, ( …) creating a mental health crisis among young Americans.”

This "for profit", because "the more time users spend on these platforms, the more the defendants can sell advertisements", they denounce.

"Mental Health Crisis"

The district, which explains that it has put in place resources, including human resources, to help students, believes that these tech giants must put their hands in their pockets: “Taxpayers should not bear the burden of the mental health crisis. that social media companies have created.

“In his 2022 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden (…) called to “hold social media platforms accountable for the nationwide experiment they conduct on our children for profit “”, still indicates in its complaint the school district of Seattle, which assures that it “brings this action to do exactly that”.



Contacted by AFP, Meta said he had "developed more than 30 tools to support teens and families, including supervision tools that allow parents to limit the time their teens spend on Instagram, and verification technology that helps teens have age-appropriate experiences,” says Antigone Davis, Security Manager.

"We will continue to work closely with experts, policymakers and parents on these important issues," she added in the emailed comment.

Google said it had "invested heavily in creating safe experiences for children on our platforms", and "introduced strong protections and dedicated features to put their well-being first".

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  • Social networks

  • Mental Health

  • UNITED STATES

  • World