New York City, along with plaintiffs that include the school district and health care organizations, filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles County branch of the California Superior Court, citing the companies' ties to the area. The complaint alleges that Meta, Snap, ByteDance and Google (whose parent company is Alphabet) knowingly “designed, developed, produced, operated, promoted, distributed and marketed their platforms to attract, capture and create addiction in young peoplewith minimal parental control.”
It was the mayor of New York himself, Eric Adamsto announce that his administration has filed a lawsuit against the parent companies of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, claiming that their services harm the mental health of children and young adults. “Over the last decade, we've seen how addictive and oppressive the online world can be, exposing our children to a relentless flow of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis,” Adams said. “Today, we are taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis.”
In the 311 pages of the complaint, it is clear how the largest school district in the countrywith approximately 1 million students, had to respond to problems and interruptions in teaching inside and outside the classroom and has consequently had to provide counseling for anxiety and depression and develop specific paths on the effects of social media on the mental health of children and adolescents, incurring more than 100 million dollars a year in expenses in programs and services.
The response from the social media concerned was not long in coming. “We regularly collaborate with experts to understand emerging best practices, and will continue to work to keep our community safe by addressing challenges common across the industry,” a Tik Tok spokesperson said. Meta already affected by other accusations, she declared that she had “worked on these issues for a decade” and wishes “that teens have safe, age-appropriate online experiences, and we have over 30 tools and features to support them and their parents.”
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