Seattle Su Schools Instagram and TikTok: They are poisoning our children for profit

The issue at the moment seems unique, though accompanied Hundreds of lawsuits filed by individual families. But what has been done before Seattle School District, Northwest America, home to Amazon and Microsoft, could be the start of a new movement. Basically, every public school in the city has filed lawsuits against the social media giants: Half (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), The Google (YouTube), TikTok (the Chinese company behind the platform called dance bytes), Stabilizes, the company that controls SnapChat. Because? The complaint goes straight to the point: «The defendants succeeded in exploiting the weak minds of young people, Engaging tens of millions of students across the country Through a vicious cycle of positive social media responses that lead to overuse and abuse of the platforms. Even worse,” the legal document continues, “the content that the defendants suggest and address to young people is It is often harmful and exploitative for economic interests. In essence, summed up as follows in the 91 pages that make up the complaint, the above companies have been brought before a judge for having “poisoned young people” A real addiction to social mediaAs a result, schools cannot correctly perform their educational task Because an increasing number of students suffer from anxiety, depression, and other psychological issues associated with or exacerbated by the use of digital social media platforms.

As mentioned, the Seattle District initiative—one hundred schools for a total of nearly 50,000 boys and girls—seems unique. But it comes after a two-year period, 2021 and 2022, which saw hundreds of Lawsuits Filed by American Families Against social media signatures, ii bloomberg At least a dozen of them are related to Suicides among young people. On the other hand, there is undoubtedly the exit from the lockdown period – the moment of isolation, which many have experienced entirely digitally, and which turns out to be It is often destructive for the younger generation On the other hand, there was the series of investigations he conducted Wall Street Journalthe so-called “Facebook Profiles” were born as a result Discoveries made by a former employee of Mark Zuckerberg, Francis Haugen.

Among Haugen’s accusations was the claim that the company (Meta, for that matter) stood by They prey on weak youngsters on purpose to increase profits. Specifically, the Wall Street Journal articles pointed fingers against the Facebook algorithm – which would reward intentionally divisive content – and on internal company research, then kept secret, showing how to use Instagram can lead to serious negative effects. It showed a research slide — not surprisingly, dating back to March 2020, when isolation measures to curb the pandemic began — showing how one-third of teenage girls They didn’t feel comfortable about their physique; they felt Instagram made them feel even worse. Congress has held several hearings, for example holding Instagram Parental control has been introduced on the application. Investigations began. But the company’s line of defense is – based Communications etiquette law – Always barricade behindImmunity from complaints related to content posted by users. And on which platforms will have relative responsibility. A 1996 law that saw many Republicans and Democrats agree that reform was needed. President Biden on the occasion State of the Union castimploring Congress to “hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they are dragging on our children for profit.”

If federal laws don’t protect kids, Seattle schools have decided to do it themselves. Indeed, the lawsuit argues that what the law says in these cases does not protect the behavior of the tech giants. Plaintiff is not alleging that the Defendants are responsible for what third parties have posted on the Platforms, but rather for the conduct of the Defendants themselves. Recommending and promoting harmful content For young people, messages favoring anorexia and causing eating disorders. The detailed report states that between 2009 and 2019 there was a 30% increase in the number of Seattle public school students who reported feeling “Sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks in a row»Who then showed signs of social withdrawal. So the school district is asking the court to order the companies to stop this “population disturbance” activity, to compensate the families for the damages. Based on Pay courses in the prevention and treatment of overuse The problem of social media.