A US school system in Maryland has sued companies like Meta, Google, Snapchat and TikTok for allegedly causing mental health crisis in children. The lawsuit has been filed by the Howard Country Public School System. The addictive nature of the social media products that these companies endorse has been a key concern for parents, educators and educational institutes.
The last decade saw exponential growth in social media engagement by Americans. “That explosion in usage is no accident. It is the result of defendants’ studied efforts to induce young people to compulsively use their products — Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube,” the lawsuit read. It also highlighted the “dopamine-triggering rewards” on each app. For example, TikTok’s ‘For You’ page leverages data on user activity to provide an unending stream of suggested content. Further, it was pointed out that Facebook and Instagram’s recommendation algorithms and “features are designed to create harmful loops of repetitive and excessive product usage”.
These companies specifically target adolescents and children who are more prone to internet usage. The lawsuit further argued, “In a race to corner the ‘valuable but untapped’ market of tween and teen users, each defendant designed product features to promote repetitive, uncontrollable use by kids.” School systems in Washington, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Tennessee, and others have also filed such lawsuits on the negative impact of social media on children, especially with its effect on their mental health.
