Four Ontario school boards have sued Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok owners because of the platforms’ negative influence on teens.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Peel District School Board (PDSB), Toronto Catholic District School Board and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board are seeking $4.5 billion in damages from the social media giants, accusing them of disrupting student learning and the education system. According to them, Canadian students are experiencing an attention, learning and mental health crisis due to the addictive use of the social networks. This is causing a “massive strains on the four school boards’ finite resources, including additional needs for in-school mental health programming and personnel, increased IT costs, and additional administrative resources,” said the boards.
“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 TDSB director of education Colleen Russell-Rawlins. “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.”
For her part, PDSB director of education Rashmi Swarup said: “urgent action is needed to protect students from further harm. That is why we have come together in bringing action against social media giants to make their products safer while addressing the disruptions they are causing to our educational mandate.”
The lawsuit aims to make the platforms safer for teens while providing school boards with the resources needed to support student programming and services, according to Neinstein LLP, a Toronto-based litigation firm that is representing the school boards.
This news comes after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last month that gave ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, six months to sell its assets or be banned in that country. The bill still needs to pass the senate before being signed by President Biden. Meta, meanwhile, updated its Facebook and Instagram apps earlier this year after facing several criticisms about the lack of teen protection on its platforms. The social networks now hide results related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders. In October, Meta was also sued by 33 attorneys in the U.S. for addictive features geared at kids and teens.
A recent study by MTM found that the majority of teens in Canada use social media on a daily basis. Seven out of ten children aged seven to 17 consume social networks, with 82% using these sites on a daily basis.
