Howard County Schools Sue Social Media Giants YouTube, TikTok And Snapchat

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The Howard County Public School System has become the next in line to file a lawsuit against social media companies, claiming their products are detrimental to students' mental health.

The school district joins Harford County schools, Prince George's County Public Schools and others who have filed suit. The defendants in the lawsuit are Meta, Google, ByteDance and Snap Inc. - the parent companies behind Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.

The lawsuit claims that the platforms are both addictive and exploitative in nature, and make it difficult for the Howard County school system to provide adequate mental health resources to its body of nearly 60,000 students, reports WJZ.

"Across the nation, school systems like Howard County encounter the difficulty of catering to students' needs while providing an exceptional education and cultivating a positive learning environment," said Philip Federico, an attorney representing the school board. "This lawsuit is an effort to make social media companies liable for their contribution to the mental health crisis in young people, and to reimburse the Howard County Public School System for the financial strain caused by the defendants' exploitative platforms."

The district said it's seeing increased rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation among students and has had to reallocate funds to provide mental health support for students.