Social media companies are increasingly being blamed for historically high rates of depression, suicidality and other mental health issues in youths. And now, states and local governments are increasingly pursuing legislation and legal action.
Driving the news: Utah just passed a law limiting social media for minors and school districts in Seattle and San Mateo County, California, are suing leading platforms, charging they’re delivering harmful content to kids.
“Multiple juries are in. They’re all reaching the same conclusion,” Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University Stern School of Business told the Financial Times. “When social media or high-speed internet came in, [studies] all find the same story which is mental health plummets, especially for girls.”
The big picture: There are nearly 150 product liability lawsuits filed in the U.S. against the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, per the Financial Times.
- A growing number of school districts and municipalities are among those filing suit, Axios’ Jennifer A. Kingson reported.
- Among them, the San Mateo County School Board last week expanded an existing suit against social media companies to include Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Bloomberg reported. Bucks County, Pennsylvania, filed its own lawsuit in mid-March, seeking financial damages for rising mental health costs for young people, the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.
- Arkansas and Texas are also eyeing laws like Utah’s limiting social media use. California previously passed a law requiring online services to install certain safeguards for users under 18, the New York Times reported.
- Members of Congress have promised further regulation of social media companies, and last month, Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) introduced a bill to ban social media use for kids younger than 16.
Many of the suits are built around concern about the way platforms feed targeted content to keep kids online longer,…
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