School districts sue tech giants over youth mental health crisis – Axios

A slew of school districts across the country are suing social media companies, alleging that the tech giants are contributing to a youth mental health crisis.Catch up quick: The first of the lawsuits was filed in January by Seattle Public Schools, alleging that social media companies had intentionally designed and marketed their platforms to attract youth and had violated Washington state’s public nuisance law.Similar lawsuits were filed last month in Florida and New Jersey.State of play: California’s San Mateo County Board of Education and Superintendent Nancy Magee filed a lawsuit last Monday alleging that YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat as well as their parent companies are “knowingly creating this unprecedented mental health crisis.”The suit alleged that the companies used artificial intelligence and machine learning to intentionally design “their platforms to be addictive and to deliver harmful content to youth.”Pennsylvania’s Bucks County filed a lawsuit last Wednesday in California federal court alleging that the companies running TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube have fueled the youth mental health crisis by designing and marketing their platforms in ways that “encourage youth addiction.”“For too long these companies have exploited developing minds without consequence, exchanging our children’s mental wellbeing for billions of dollars in ad
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