Anxiety and growing depression among students, suicide attempts: public school officials in Seattle, United States, have filed a complaint against social networks such as Facebook or TikTok, accusing them of “attacks” on the mental health of the young audience.
Public school officials in the northwestern Washington city say they want to “hold social media companies accountable for the harm they have done to the social, emotional and mental health of their student children,” according to a news release.
“The increase in mental health-related suicides, suicide attempts and emergency room visits is not coincidental. (…) This crisis was already worsening before the pandemic and research has identified that the Social networks play an important role in the appearance of mental health problems in young people”, they add.
“A Mental Health Crisis Among America’s Youth”
In this complaint they accuse these companies of having exploited “the psychology and neurophysiology of their users so that they spend more and more time on their platforms, (…) creating a mental health crisis among young Americans.”
This, they denounce, “for profit”, because “the more time users spend on these platforms, the more advertising the defendants can sell.”
The district, which explains that it has put resources, including human resources, in place to help students, believes that these tech giants should put their hands in their pockets: “taxpayers should not bear the burden of the mental health crisis that social media companies have created.”
Contacted, Google said it had “invested heavily in creating safe experiences for children on our platforms” and “introduced strong protections and dedicated features to prioritize their well-being,” according to José Castañeda, a spokesperson.
Source: BFM TV
