Social Media Litigation: Everything You Need to Know
Public entities are faced with a significant challenge that needs to be addressed immediately. This challenge arises from the mental health crisis of youth and students that has been caused by social media companies and their alleged deceptive products and platforms. As to the scope of the mental health crisis caused by social media, the CDC National Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that the rate of teen depression rose by more than 60% between 2011 and 2018. Further, the United States Surgeon General has declared a national advisory on the youth mental health crisis, blaming social media, in part, for the growing number of youths experiencing depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges. You can read the full report at https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-youth-mental-health-advisory.pdf Frantz Law Group has extensive legal experience representing public entities such as school districts, states, counties and cities with respect to false and misleading marketing. To assist public entities in addressing this mental health crisis caused by social media companies, Frantz Law Group has commenced litigation (on behalf of public entities) against Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube, and others. This lawsuit alleges, in part, that various social media companies have caused a mental health crisis among children and teenagers that is marked by higher proportions of anxiety, depression, and thoughts of self-harm, all of which severely affect their ability to succeed in school. Many children, students, and adults spend an inordinate amount of time scrolling through social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, where they are often subjected to harmful and exploitative content that encourages disorderly behavior, unhealthy social comparison, and cyberbullying. In order to mitigate the problem caused from the social media manipulative algorithms that created youth addiction, school districts are required to hire additional behavioral health personnel, train teachers to assist students with emotional instability, increase disciplinary services, and divert time and resources from educational instruction. This litigation seeks to provide the funding and resources needed to mitigate the damage that school districts are currently experiencing. Separately, states, counties, and cities require additional funding to pay for behavioral health services on behalf of those individuals injured from the adverse social media exposure.
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