Four major Ontario school boards are taking some of the largest social media companies to court over their products, alleging the way they’re designed have negatively rewired the way children think, behave and learn and have thus disrupted the way schools operate.
The public district school boards of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa, along with Toronto’s Catholic counterpart, are looking for about $4.5 billion in damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which operate the platforms Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively, according to statements of claim filed Wednesday.
“The influence of social media on today’s youth at school cannot be denied. It leads to pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” said Colleen Russell-Rawlins, director of education at the Toronto District School Board, in a release Thursday.
“Therefore, it is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation.”
The school boards, operating under a new coalition called Schools for Social Media Change, allege students are experiencing an “attention, learning, and mental health crisis” because of “prolific and compulsive use of social media products.”
Trying to respond to this has caused “massive strains” on the group’s funds, including in additional mental health programming and staff, IT costs and administrative resources, the release states. The boards call on the social media giants to “remediate” the costs to the larger education system and redesign their products to keep students safe.
Neinstein LLP, a Toronto-based firm, is representing the school boards in their lawsuit. The boards will not be responsible for any costs related to the lawsuit unless a successful outcome is reached, the release states.
“A strong education system is the foundation of our society and our community. Social media products and the changes in behaviour, judgment and attention that they cause pose a threat to that system and to the student population our schools serve,” said Duncan Embury, a partner and head of litigation at Neinstein.
CBC Toronto has reached out to the companies named for comment.
The latest lawsuit comes after a large civil suit against Meta Platforms Inc. was initiated in the U.S. last fall. Over 30 states accused Meta Platforms Inc. of harming young people’s mental health and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook that cause children to be addicted to its platforms.
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