REGION — The Coronado and Oceanside Unified school districts filed lawsuits against social media companies, including Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube, joining scores of other school districts nationwide that claim social media is harming the mental health of young people.
The lawsuits filed this week in federal court in San Francisco allege the companies’ platforms are designed to be addictive and contribute to an escalating mental health crisis among adolescents.
The complaints filed this week continue a trend of school districts filing suit against social media giants, with the first such litigation believed to be a complaint filed in January by Seattle Public Schools.
Both complaints allege in identical language that “the increased use of and dependency on social media has led to an increase in the number of Plaintiff’s students in crisis, acting out, vandalizing school property and in need of mental health services.”
James Frantz, an attorney representing Coronado and Oceanside Unified, as well as 14 other school districts that filed suit this week, said in a statement, “We allege that Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube and other social media companies have engaged in reckless and negligent misconduct that has caused a mental health crisis among our youth. Social media companies are well aware of the harm they cause. It must stop, and we will fight to hold these social media companies accountable for choosing profit over the mental health and safety of children and their families.”
A news release from Frantz Law Group states the litigation “seeks to provide the funding and resources needed to mitigate the damage that school districts are currently experiencing.”
