Three California counties are suing Meta/Facebook, Instagram, Snap, TikTok, Google and YouTube, alleging the companies have created a social media addiction crisis among youth through their insecurity- and dependency-promoting platforms.
San Diego, Sacramento and Del Norte counties filed the lawsuits on Jan. 27 in their respective superior courts. They are represented by their county counsels as well as several private law firms: Baron & Budd, Diab Chambers, Wagstaff & Cartmell, Beasley Allen and Goza & Honnold.
The litigation argues that communities nationwide are experiencing an unprecedented mental health crisis among youth and adolescents due to the social media platforms’ addictive nature, leading to disruptions in children’s education and causing a public nuisance under California statutes. Young people’s use of such online platforms has grown exponentially, the lawsuit filed in Sacramento County says.
“That explosion in usage is no accident,” the complaint states. “It is the result of (the) defendants’ studied efforts to induce students to compulsively use their social media platforms. … Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used in slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, defendants deliberately embedded in their platforms an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue.”
The harmful features on the platforms include algorithmically generated endless scrolls, “intermittent variable rewards” that manipulate dopamine levels in the brains of young people, “trophies” rewarding intensive platform use and nonstop notifications that lead to manufactured insecurity, according to the complaint.
In addition, the social media companies’ age-verification efforts are lax and parental controls deficient, the plaintiff counties allege.
“Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube have rewired how students think, learn, feel and behave,” the lawsuit says. “Disconnected ‘Likes’ have replaced the intimacy of adolescent friendships. Mindless scrolling has displaced the creativity of play and sport.”
The allegations are similar to those made in lawsuits filed against social media companies by school districts in federal courts. A Google spokesman, however, pushed back at the accusations contained in the litigation.
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,” José Castañeda told the Southern California Record in an email. “In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls. The allegations in these complaints are simply not true.”
The filing in Sacramento County seeks to enjoin the defendants from taking the steps that have created the current “crisis” and seeks mitigation or abatement cost awards, compensatory damages, punitive damages, statutory damages, and an award of attorney fees and court costs. The plaintiffs allege they have had to devote significant resources to counter anxiety and depression among youths through counseling, education and mental health services.
“Compulsive social media use and addiction is negatively affecting children’s focus and behavior in communities across the country, including plaintiffs’,” the lawsuit says
Baron & Budd shareholder and attorney John Fiske said the companies have focused on profits rather than the well-being of youth..
“By fostering a cycle of dependence, these platforms have contributed to a public health crisis that demands accountability,” Fiske said in a prepared statement. “This lawsuit is a critical step in holding social media platforms responsible for the damage they have caused and ensuring that children are protected from the destructive impact of their practices.”
Statistics cited in the lawsuit include an examination of trends from 2011 through 2020, when high school students reported a 40% increase in consistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. During the same time period, there was a 36% rise in suicide attempts among that age group, according to the complaint.