It is not enough that older adults with low self esteem and body image hangups are using filters and exposing their bodies; children are now doing the same. Many marriages are ending or are on the rocks due to one or both spouses embarrassing their family with sexually suggestive videos on Tik Tok. It also happens on other social media platforms and being shown to the world. The children are victims and are now experiencing even more harm.
A recent and local lawsuit says that from 2009 to 2019, there was on average a 30% increase in the number of Seattle Public Schools students who reported feeling “so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row” that they stopped doing some typical activities. The school district is asking the court to order the companies to stop creating the public nuisance, to award damages, and to pay for prevention education and treatment for excessive and problematic use of social media.
Adult parents with children who post content that are self agrandizing or sexual in nature looks to be blaming social media instead of the problem also stemming from their examples. Family oriented content or educational post of substance seems to be getting as much side eye from older adult and parents as the with teens.
While hundreds of families are pursuing lawsuits against the companies over harms they allege their children have suffered from social media, it’s not clear if any other school districts have filed a complaint like Seattle’s. Internal studies revealed by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021 showed that the company knew that Instagram negatively affected teenagers by harming their body image and making eating disorders and thoughts of suicide worse.
The lawsuit that Seattle Public Schools has filed against the tech giants TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat is seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth. The 91-page complaint does not place blame on parents but says the social media companies have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children. It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers.
While federal law — Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — helps protect online companies from liability arising from what third-party users post on their platforms, the lawsuit argues that provision does not protect the tech giants’ behavior in this case. All of the companies beingvl sued put out a statement but TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
