Canada’s largest school boards announced Thursday that they will file a class-action lawsuit against TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat worth C$4.5 billion for damages caused to their students.
According to the organizations, these social networks are designed to encourage the addition of their users. Therefore, they maximize their economic benefits at the expense of the mental health and well-being of their students. Likewise, they point out that these platforms facilitate harassment and the spread of hate messages, as well as misinformation.
The accusation also states the additional expenses that the country’s schools assume in order to address the problems caused by these platforms. That is why they are requesting a total of 4.5 billion Canadian dollars (3.069 million euros) as compensation.
“The defendants have acted in an arrogant, reckless, malicious and reprehensible manner without due regard to the well-being of the student population and the educational system,” states the lawsuit that has been filed by the largest school boards in the country: the School Council of the Toronto District, Toronto District Catholic School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and Peel District School Board.
In addition to financial compensation, these four organizations also request that the companies responsible for the four platforms, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and ByteDance (TikTok and Snapchat), change the design of the applications.
“Students are experiencing attention, learning and mental health crises due to prolific and compulsive use of social media. This is causing enormous strains on the limited resources of the four school boards,” the schools added in the statement.
This lawsuit adds to the growing complaints against social networks made by other US cities such as Seattle or New York, for damaging the mental health of young people. In 2021, 38% of New York high school students acknowledged suffering from mental problems, compared to 27% a decade ago.
In 2023, the Cyberpsychology research group at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR) carried out a study that highlighted the negative impact of networks. It was concluded that 16% of adolescents have a complicated and negative relationship with social networks.
A specialist in the prevention of suicidal behavior, psychologist Francisco Villar encourages following the North American example and advocates prohibiting telephones for those under 16 years of age. However, although experts in the field agree that there is abusive use of the smartphone and that there should be regulation, not everyone agrees with the effectiveness of its deprivation.
