"Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat know exactly how addictive their platforms can be to teens. And they continue to target teen users anyway. Those are allegations a group of school districts is making in a lawsuit against the social media giants, according to a newly unsealed legal filing that quotes the companies' own internal documents."
""IG (Instagram) is a drug ... we're basically pushers," Meta researchers said in an internal chat, according to the filing. An internal TikTok report noted that "minors do not have executive mental function to control their screen time." Snapchat executives once acknowledged that users who "have the Snapchat addiction have no room for anything else. Snap dominates their life." And staffers within YouTube once said that "[d]riving more frequent daily usage [was] not well-aligned with ... efforts to improve digital wellbeing," the filing states."
"The platforms "deliberately embedded design features in their platforms to maximize youth engagement to drive advertising revenue," the complaint claims. And the school districts allege that the social media companies have contributed to a youth mental health crisis that schools must address by investing in counseling and other resources."
School districts allege that Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat embedded addictive design features specifically targeting teens and maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue. Internal company messages reportedly describe Instagram as "a drug," acknowledge minors' limited ability to control screen time, and note that Snapchat can dominate addicted users' lives. Plaintiffs claim these practices have contributed to a youth mental health crisis and placed financial and staffing burdens on schools to provide counseling and resources. The companies deny the characterization and have sought dismissal of the claims. Internal documents and employee testimony are cited as evidence.
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