Social Media Firms Defend Their Spaces After New York Files Public Nuisance Complaint

Allegations that social media companies have targeted school kids as a “core market,” that the defendants designed their platforms to attract and addict youth, and that they have created a youth mental health crisis “are simply not true,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda emailed Thursday, saying “providing young people with a safer, healthier experience online has always been core to our work.” Google has built services and policies “in collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts” to give young people “age-appropriate experiences, and parents robust controls.”

TikTok has “industry-leading safeguards to support teens' well-being, including age-restricted features, parental controls, an automatic 60-minute time limit for users under 18, and more,” a spokesperson emailed. “We regularly partner with experts to understand emerging best practices, and will continue to work to keep our community safe by tackling industry-wide challenges." Facebook and Instagram parent Meta and Snap didn't comment.

At a news conference Wednesday, New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) said the city spends over $100 million a year on youth mental health programs and services, in announcing that the city, its school district and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. are joining hundreds of U.S. school districts suing the companies that own the five major social media platforms. New York City Public Schools is the largest school system in the U.S. with over 1.1 million students in more than 1,800 schools.

“Young people in New York City are experiencing anxiety, hopelessness and even attempted suicide at rates we have never seen before, and there is growing evidence that the power of social media is a major cause,” Adams said. The lawsuit aims to hold social media companies financially accountable for their platforms’ damage.

Kids are experiencing a rise in online bullying, eating disorders and suicidal ideation, Adams said, referencing what mental health experts call a “dopamine release” in the brain produced by “likes,” “trophies” and “streaks” designed to keep young people “clicking in these dark corners of social media," Adams said. Social media can “damage self‑esteem, promote addiction, and often encourages reckless behavior like subway surfing and car theft challenges,” he said.

To address the decline in students’ mental, emotional and social health, New York schools have had to divert resources from their education budgets to hire social workers, therapists and behaviorists; increase training for teachers and staff to identify students experiencing issues affecting their mental, emotional, and social health; develop lesson plans about dangers of using social media platforms; and create and distribute materials about mental health related to social media use, said the complaint.

City schools have had to expend additional resources to provide suicide prevention training for nurses, teachers and staff; expand health clinics, offer crisis intervention through staff and provide “de-escalation training for safety agents"; and launch a citywide survey on youth mental health to better understand what types of support youth ages 13-17 need and barriers they face in seeking help, the complaint said.

New York “is the first major American city to take combined steps of this magnitude and call out the danger of social media clearly and directly, just as the surgeon general did with tobacco and guns,” Adams said, saying the city is “treating social media like other public health hazards.” Last month, Ashwin Vasan, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene commissioner, issued an advisory declaring social media a public health hazard.

The suit seeks orders finding defendants are jointly and severally liable and requiring them to abate the public nuisance described and from engaging in further actions contributing to the mental health crisis. It also seeks awards of equitable relief to fund prevention education and mental health treatment; actual, compensatory and punitive damages; attorneys’ fees and legal costs; and pre- and post-judgment interest.