A Utah school district has been named the lead plaintiff in a Big Tech lawsuit alleging social media companies are fueling student learning loss and steep declines in teenagers’ mental health.
Utah’s Jordan School District announced that it is helping to lead the court battle against Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat.
The news comes after school districts across the United States sued social media moguls, arguing they have been forced to allocate millions of dollars to address mental health problems school districts allege are fueled by student addictions to social media. The case was originally filed last year in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“This is based on the significant costs Jordan and other school districts have incurred as a result of the various harms that come from student use of social media, including the increased need for student mental health services,” a Jordan School District press release reads.
Anthony Godfrey, the district's superintendent, made the same argument.
“We have spent millions of dollars mostly on additional staff to help support students,” Godfrey said during a press conference Monday at Columbia Elementary School in West Jordan, adding, “It would be difficult to list all the direct and indirect impacts that we feel as we see students day to day.”
Eleven other school districts are named as lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which argues social media algorithms are designed to be addictive, leading to emotional and mental harm, and fueling suicides among minors.
Tracy Miller, the president of the Jordan School District's Board of Education told FOX 13 News she believes “social media companies have designed a highly addictive product that harms our children. And we’ve seen the impact every day within our schools."
During the press conference on Monday, one parent shared how social media had negatively affected his son's academic performance.
“Logan was not prepared to be sucked into the social media world that was waiting for him, nor were his mother and I aware of what was happening on the other end to suck him in,” school board member Bryce Dunford said. “His grades dramatically declined, this from a student coming out of elementary school had been a perfect student. His sixth-grade elementary teacher just ranted and raved about his academic success, and now he’s barely struggling to pass this class.”
However, social media companies argue their platforms cannot be held responsible for what third parties publish, according to court filings.
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"Courts have routinely concluded that publishers owe no duty of care based on their publication and dissemination of third party content—even when that content and/or its presentation is allegedly 'addicting,'" according to a motion to dismiss filed in court last year.
Dunford said during the press conference that he believes his district’s selection as the lead plaintiff could be because of a flurry of teenage suicides in the area. In 2018, the community grieved the loss of five teenage students from Herriman High School who died by suicide.
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