Long Island school districts sue social media giants over 'addictive and dangerous' effects on children

Several New York school districts from Long Island are suing social media giants such as TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, alleging that the "addictive and dangerous" social media platforms are causing mental health issues with students. The lawsuits come just a couple weeks after U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label on social media platforms, saying they are “associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.”

The eleven school districts allege that the social media platforms have also caused “serious financial and resource disruptions" for the schools, after many of them had to hire mental health professionals to be on site, per Newsday. “We have seen things posted and how disruptive they are to the school environment,” said President of the South Huntington Board of Education, Nicholas Ciappetta, in a phone interview. “We want social media companies to take responsibility and to implement appropriate safeguards to ensure that they’re monitoring these types of things.”



Jericho Superintendent Hank Grishman told the outlet in an interview he is “most definitely” aware of the impacts that social media is having on kids in his district. “The amount of time that our kids spend on social media is of concern, and the information that’s available — some of the misinformation that’s available on social media — that concerns me," he added.

The 11 districts all filed a similar five-page lawsuit that accused the social media companies of being a public nuisance as well as committing negligence on the companies' part. The suit was filed in a court in California. California lawyer William Shinoff, who represents about 1,000 school districts across the US, said that over two-dozen other districts in the Long Island area intend to file similar lawsuits against the companies. “They’re well aware of the harm they’re doing,” Shinoff told the outlet.

The districts from Long Island are Bellmore-Merrick, Brentwood, Great Neck, East Islip, Kings Park, Islip, Jericho, North Merrick, South Huntington, Port Jefferson, and Westbury. In response to the allegations against YouTube, a spokesman from its parent company, Google, said the allegations were “simply not true.”

“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” the representative said. “In collaboration with youth, mental-health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls.”

A Snapchat representative told the outlet the that they “always have more work to do” and then added, “We feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence.”