New York City is suinga handful of social media networks, alleging their platforms\u2019 designs exploit young users\u2019 mental health and cost the city $100 million in related health programs and services each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the lawsuit against TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, the city of New York said the platforms are responsible for an uptick in mental health issues among young people, including depression and suicide ideation. These issues, the lawsuit states, impose a \u201clarge burden on cities, school districts and public hospital systems that provide mental health services to youth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lawsuit comes shortly after executives from social media platforms faced tough questions from lawmakers during the latest congressional hearings over how their platforms may direct younger users \u2013 and particularly teenage girls \u2013 to harmful content, damaging their mental health and body image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A growing number of families have sued social media companies, along with US states and municipalities, over the alleged impact on the mental health of their children. But during a press conference on Wednesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said: \u201cNYC is first major American city to take combined steps of this magnitude and call out the danger of social media clearly and directly just as the surgeon general did with tobacco and guns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York City said it is seeking monetary damages and equitable relief to fund prevention education and mental health treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city also released a social media action plan that highlights how it plans to hold social media companies accountable, provide education and support to young people and families, and study the long-term impacts of social media on youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Snap spokesperson told CNN the platform was \u201cintentionally designed to be different from traditional social media\u201d with a focus on helping users communicate with close friends and by opening up directly to the camera rather than a feed of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Meta \u2013 the parent company of Instagram and Facebook \u2013 said it offers more than 30 tools and features to support them and their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spent a decade working on these issues and hiring people who have dedicated their careers to keeping young people safe and supported online,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TikTok and YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, Mayor Adams called social media a \u201cpublic health hazard\u201d and an \u201cenvironmental toxin\u201d during his State of the City address. The lawsuitalso builds on last year\u2019s Surgeon General warning that declared social media a \u201cprofound risk of harm\u201dfor kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While announcing the action plan, Adams said he\u2019s increasingly concerned about the \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201caddictive\u201d features that impact the lives of young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cInstead of talking to each other over lunch at the cafeteria, they are absorbed in screens,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead of playing at the park with friends, they are inside on a sunny day, clicking and scrolling. Instead of learning confidence and resilience, they\u2019re being exposed to content that often leads to insecurity and depression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the move to sue these companies is \u201ca bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers\u201d to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in the US, it\u2019s very hard to sue social media platforms because of a 28-year-old federal law called \u201cSection 230,\u201d which holds that tech companies cannot be held liable for the content that users post to their platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By contrast, under the EU\u2019s Digital Service Act, companies can be sued for up to 6% of their worldwide revenues if they violate the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source: CNN\u2019s Nic Anderson contributed to this report<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New York City is suinga handful of social media networks, alleging their platforms\u2019 designs exploit young users\u2019 mental health and cost the city $100 million in related health programs and services each year. In the lawsuit against TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, the city of New York said the platforms are responsible for an uptick in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,20],"tags":[854],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-tech","tag-new-york-city-sues-social-media-platforms-over-youth-mental-health-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2860,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions\/2860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}