"Minor Mental Health Crisis Due to SNS Addiction"... Seattle City Sues Big Tech

Criticism of Google, Facebook, TikTok, Snap, and Others

[Asia Economy Reporter Minwoo Lee] The Seattle School District in the United States has filed a lawsuit against big tech companies, citing their responsibility for the mental health crisis among children caused by social networking service (SNS) addiction.

On the 7th (local time), Bloomberg reported that the Seattle School District filed this lawsuit against big tech companies in federal court. Students are experiencing mental health issues such as anxiety and depression due to SNS addiction, making it impossible to achieve educational goals.

The Seattle School District claimed that Google’s parent company Alphabet, Facebook’s parent company Meta, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, and Snap are responsible for attracting minors to their platforms and causing a mental health crisis. Accordingly, the district requested the court to order monetary damages and the establishment of funds for prevention and treatment of excessive social media use.

This is the first time a U.S. school district has filed a lawsuit against big tech companies over such issues. According to Bloomberg, there have been about ten lawsuits filed by families of victims, including those related to suicides.

Earlier, last year, former Meta employee Frances Haugen exposed that SNS companies focused on profit despite knowing the potential for causing mental health problems among minors, which has intensified calls for big tech accountability.