Social Media Contributes to Youth Mental Health Crisis: School District

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act “is no shield,” for social media companies’ conduct, said a public nuisance and negligence complaint (docket 2:23-cv-172) filed against the top social media companies Thursday by Mesa Public Schools, the largest public school district in Arizona with 58,000 students in 78 schools.

Meta and its Facebook and Instagram platforms and Siculus subsidiary; Snap; ByteDance’s TikTok; and Alphabet’s Google and YouTube “substantially” contributed to a mental health crisis among youth users, said the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for Arizona in Phoenix by law firm Keller Rohrback, which filed a similar suit this month on behalf of Kent Public Schools in Washington (see 2301110029).

Defendants’ choices made in design and operation of their platforms “exploit the psychology and neurophysiology of their users” into spending more time on their platforms, said the complaint. The platforms have “intentionally cultivated” techniques that are “particularly effective and harmful to the youth audience” -- for profit, it said.

Defendants’ business models are based on advertisements; the more time users spend on their platforms, the more ads they can sell, asserted the complaint. Youths are “more likely to have a phone, to use social media and to have downtime to spend” on social media platforms, the complaint said, and they “influence the behavior of their parents and younger siblings.” Social media platforms are purposely refined to “exploit the neurophysiology of the brain’s reward systems to keep users coming back” and staying on the platform for as long as possible, it said.

The East Valley of Phoenix, where the plaintiff is located, has had “drastic increases” in suicides, with eight teens dying from suicide or drug overdoses March-June 2022, the complaint said. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in children in the state, and Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) and the state legislature supported initiatives addressing teens’ mental health. Some 90% of children 13-17 use social media, and 38% of kids 8-12 do, said the complaint, citing studies.

Electronic screen use causes “lower psychological well-being,” alleged the complaint, saying adolescents with high screen time "are twice as likely” to receive diagnoses of depression or anxiety. Increased social media use results in higher instances of depressive systems, suicide-related outcomes and suicide rates among adolescents, it alleged.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act requires social media platforms that have users under 13 to obtain “verifiable parental consent” to use the platform, the complaint said, but they leave users to “self-report” their age. They implemented “kid versions” of their platforms to capture pre-adolescent audiences, alleged the complaint. Social media platforms don’t collect and use that age segment’s information, but they're “designed to fuel [kids’] interest in the grown-up version," it said.

The school district cited TikTok for its “like” feature, saying users’ “likes" activate the brain's reward region and then users will use the platform again and again “in hope of another pleasurable experience.” Websites also reinforce negative thoughts, it said, citing a Wall Street Journal investigation deep into social media “rabbit holes” that found a video allegedly encouraging suicide by saying, “Do Everyone a favor and leave.”

Anticipating a CDA defense from the defendants, the plaintiff said Section 230 provides immunity from liability only to “(1) a provider or user of an interactive computer service (2) whom a plaintiff seeks to treat, under a state law cause of action, as a publisher or speaker (3) of information provided by another information content provider,” citing Barnes v. Yahoo. Publication “generally involves traditional editorial functions” and doesn't include duties on designing and marketing a social media platform, it said. Defendants are liable for their own affirmative conduct in recommending and promoting harmful content to youth, it said.

Among judgments the plaintiff seeks are an order that social media conduct constitutes a “public nuisance” under Arizona law; defendants are “jointly and severally liable” and are deterred or prevented from resuming nuisance; and they're enjoined from engaging in further actions causing public nuisance. The school district seeks the award of equitable relief to fund prevention education and treatment for excessive social media use; statutory, actual, compensatory and punitive damages; plus legal fees and attorneys’ costs.