Ore., Pa. Complaints Join List of Actions vs. Social Media's Impact on Kids

Pennsylvania and that state's Bucks County filed a complaint (docket 3:23-cv-01149) Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland alleging TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube and Snap violated the Pennsylvania Public Nuisance Law and the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL). Salem-Keizer Public Schools, Marion County, Oregon, filed a complaint (docket 6:23-cv-00369) in U.S. District Court for Oregon in Eugene against the same defendants alleging public nuisance and negligence.

Bucks County residents “have borne painful witness” to the “devastating effect” of social media on adolescents, said the complaint, citing the arrest in October of a 15-year-old boy for threatening via a Snapchat post to “shoot up” a high school. The boy also used TikTok to share videos of other mass shootings, the complaint said. Bucks County youth, surveyed over the 2021-2022 school year, reported “high levels of depression and histories of suicide ideation,” it said.

Bucks County funded the institution of mental health outpatient programs, mobile crisis units, mental health services and in-school mental health programming and training to address youth mental health specifically because “the need is that great,” the complaint said.

Safe and healthy social media use by children and teens is in “stark contrast” to the deliberate design of platforms to 1) flood them “with as much divisive and harmful content as possible, for as long as possible”; and 2) “ultimately addict them, all for the sake of profit,” the complaint said. The ramifications on youth and communities “cannot be ignored,” and social media companies should “take measures to stem the tide of the mental health crisis” afflicting social-media addicted youth, it said.

Bucks County seeks orders that social media companies’ alleged conduct is a public nuisance and that defendants are jointly and severally liable; enjoining the companies and their agents from engaging in further actions contributing to public nuisance and further violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA); enjoining the defendants from violating the UTPCPL; and directing them to pay civil penalties of $1,000 for every UTPCPL violation.

It also seeks an order directing the companies to disgorge and forfeit all profits they have derived as a result of their alleged unfair deceptive acts and practices; an award of equitable relief to fund prevention education and treatment for problematic use of social media; actual, statutory and compensatory damages; and reasonable attorneys’ fees and legal costs.

Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Eugene, Oregon, train their teachers and staff to screen students for mental health symptoms and refer them to health clinics when necessary, said the school district's complaint. The district needs a long-term plan and funding to drive a reduction in the “record rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation” and other indications of a “mental health crisis its youth are experiencing at Defendants’ hands.” While school districts across the country are “stretched to the breaking point,” social media companies “profit tremendously from their wrongful conduct,” the complaint said.

Nearly 20% of teens use YouTube “almost constantly,” and TikTok and Snapchat come in at 16% and 15%, said the complaint, citing 2022 Pew Research data. The more teenagers use social media, the harder they find it to give it up, it said. Yet, only 27% of boys and 42% of girls ages 8-18 reported “enjoying social media ‘a lot,’” said a 2021 Common Sense report, saying excessive use is linked to increases in mental, emotional, developmental and behavior disorders.

Social media use caused an increase in cyberbullying and is related to higher incidences of eating disorders, sleep deprivation, feelings of sadness and hopelessness, suicidal ideation and emergency room visits, said the complaint. From 2007 to 2019, suicide rates among 10-24-year-olds in the U.S. grew 57%; suicide was the second-leading cause of death for that age group in 2018, it said, citing a 2021 U.S. surgeon general's advisory. The mental health crisis “is the result of the Defendants’ deliberate choices and affirmative actions to design and market their social media platforms to attract youth,” it said.

Social media companies make money on their platforms from advertising. They collect data on users’ viewing behaviors and use it “to sell advertisers access to their youth and other users to allow those companies to promote their products,” the complaint said. Advertisers pay a premium to target ads to specific categories of users, “including youth.”

COPPA requires platforms that target children under 13 to obtain “verifiable parental consent” before collecting and using information about them, the complaint said. Defendants have “blatantly violated COPPA” by leaving users to self-report their age, it said. Recently, they have offered “kid versions” of their platforms that don’t collect and use their information but are reportedly “designed to fuel [kids’] interest in the grown-up version.”

Plaintiff seeks orders that the referenced conduct constitutes a public nuisance and that defendants are jointly and severally liable; requiring them to abate the public nuisance; and enjoining them from engaging in further actions contributing to public nuisance. It seeks an equitable relief to fund prevention education and treatment for problematic use of social media; actual, compensatory, statutory and punitive damages; reasonable attorneys’ fees; and pre- and post-judgment interest.