Old Forge School District sues social media platforms | wnep.com

Suit joins hundreds of other school districts nationwide who allege social media has harmed their students OLD FORGE, Pa. — A school district in Lackawanna County late last week joined the hundreds of schools nationwide suing many of the major social media platforms, accusing them of addicting children to their screens and wrecking their mental health in the pursuit of profit. The Old Forge School District’s lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, says the district of roughly 1,000 students needs “immediate funding” to deal with record rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation they claim are byproducts of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok. The district cited a 2023 Pennsylvania Youth Survey that found that roughly one-in-five of the district’s sixth-graders and eighth-graders admitted they cut themselves. Some who engaged in self-harm also reported they were victims of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying was reported by more than half of the district students surveyed. Other students from Old Forge admitted in the survey to acting out in school by threatening or harming peers or staff because of a social media meme or a “challenge” that appeared on their feeds. “Identifying minors as easy prey and recognizing the huge financial upside of capturing their
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