Four major school boards in Ontario, Canada, have initiated legal action against some of the largest social media companies, claiming that their products have negatively influenced children’s thinking, behaviour, and learning patterns, as well as disrupted school operations.
The public district school boards of Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa-Carleton, along with Toronto’s Catholic counterpart, are collectively seeking approximately $4.5 billion in damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., and ByteDance Ltd., which oversee the platforms Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, respectively.
These claims were filed separately but share similar assertions, as stated in filings submitted on Wednesday.
Rachel Chernos Lin, the chair of the Toronto District School Board, expressed on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning on Thursday, “These social media companies have knowingly created a product that is addictive and marketed to kids.”
“We need them to be held accountable and we need them to create safer products.”
While the allegations await court confirmation and no specific hearing date has been set, CBC Toronto has made efforts to obtain comments from the named companies.
Under a newly established coalition called “Schools for Social Media Change,” the school boards assert in a news release that students are grappling with an “attention, learning, and mental health crisis” attributed to the “ubiquitous and compulsive use of social media products.”
According to the statements of claim, the school boards further allege that the platforms play a role in enabling and promoting cyberbullying, harassment, hate speech, and misinformation.
Additionally, they assert that these platforms contribute to escalating physical violence and conflicts within schools.
The release highlights that addressing these issues has placed significant financial burdens on the school boards, including expenses related to additional mental health programming and staff, IT costs, and administrative resources.
The boards are urging the social media giants to compensate for these costs to the broader education system and to redesign their products to ensure the safety of students.
Similar lawsuits against social media companies have been initiated by hundreds of school boards across the United States, as well as by some states.
Last autumn, more than 30 states accused Meta Platforms Inc. of exacerbating the youth mental health crisis by intentionally designing features on Instagram and Facebook that foster addiction among children.
In an email response, a spokesperson for Snap stated that Snapchat was deliberately crafted to diverge from conventional social media platforms.
They highlighted that Snapchat’s interface opens directly to a camera instead of a feed of content and lacks traditional public likes or comments.
The spokesperson acknowledged ongoing efforts to improve the platform while expressing confidence in Snapchat’s role in fostering connections among close friends and aiding adolescents in navigating the challenges of adolescence.
The school boards are being represented by Neinstein LLP, a Toronto-based firm.
As stated in the release, the boards will not incur any expenses related to the lawsuit unless it yields a successful outcome.
Duncan Embury, a partner and head of litigation at Neinstein, explained to CBC News that the named companies hold substantial responsibility for the social media products utilised by children.
He underscored that these companies share similar designs or algorithms that contribute to problematic usage patterns.
Embury stated that, to his knowledge, this is the first case of its kind in Canada.
He added, “Based on what we’re seeing and what we’re hearing from our educators, I think this is a problem that is pervasive across our system and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more boards that took this step.”
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