SCHOOL BOARDS IN CANADA FILE A $4.5 BILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST SNAP, TIKTOK, AND META FOR ‘DELIBERATELY’ HARMING CHILDREN

Thu 28 March 2024:

Four school boards in Ontario have filed a $4.5 billion lawsuit against Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta. According to a local news source, school boards claim that these social networking sites cause harm to pupils, disrupt their education, and negatively impact their mental health, leaving teachers to “manage the fallout.”

Neinstein LLP is representing the public boards of Toronto, Peel, Ottawa, and the Toronto Catholic Board in these four claims, each of which was filed individually.

Social media apps are designed for compulsive use (and) have rewired the way children think, behave, and learn, say their statements of claim. The plaintiff’s statement of claim also says that the social media companies have knowingly and negligently disrupted and fundamentally changed the school, learning, and teaching climate.

Colleen Russell-Rawlins, director of education at the Toronto District School Board, told the Toronto Star, “We’re managing mental health challenges, loneliness and … discrimination — the slurs that we’re seeing students use, some of that emanates from what’s on social media.”

“The defendants knew, or ought to have known, that their negligent conduct seriously and negatively impacts the student population by causing maladaptive brain development, compulsive use, disrupted sleep patterns, behavioural dysregulation, learning and attention impairment, and other serious issues that impact the school, learning, and teaching climate,” the statements of claim reads.

Over 500 school districts in the U.S. have launched similar cases now against these platforms. In January 2024, CEOs of Meta, TikTok, and X among other companies testified in a US court hearing. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, who chairs the committee said, “They’re responsible for many of the dangers our children face online. Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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