Do children spend too much time glued to their screens consuming social media content, frequently with detrimental results? Of course they do. For Pete’s sake, that could probably apply to most of us. But out in Washington State, the Seattle public school district claims to be trying to do something about it. Instead of convincing the kids to put away their phones for a while, however, they are suing several of the Big Tech companies that operate the platforms. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat are all in the crosshairs. The district claims that these platforms are causing “a mental health crisis among youth” and they want the companies to pay. (Associated Press)

The public school district in Seattle has filed a novel lawsuit against the tech giants behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat, seeking to hold them accountable for the mental health crisis among youth.

Seattle Public Schools filed the lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court. The 91-page complaint says the social media companies have created a public nuisance by targeting their products to children.

It blames them for worsening mental health and behavioral disorders including anxiety, depression, disordered eating and cyberbullying; making it more difficult to educate students; and forcing schools to take steps such as hiring additional mental health professionals, developing lesson plans about the effects of social media, and providing additional training to teachers.

One interesting thing to note about this suit isn’t the list of companies being sued, but rather the one name that is conspicuously absent. Somehow Twitter didn’t make the list, which strikes me as rather odd. But the lawsuit has been in the works since before Elon Musk took over, so perhaps they’ll add Twitter in later.

The suit claims that these companies have “successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth.” Perhaps, but as I said above, that could be describing almost anyone who doesn’t live entirely off the grid these days.

Normally you would think that these companies would be protected from a lawsuit such as this by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. They aren’t supposed to be held accountable for content posted by users and other third parties. But the lawsuit seeks to get around that by claiming that they aren’t blaming the companies for “harmful” content itself. They are accusing them of actively promoting content targeting children with messages that might be harmful. In that regard, recent whistleblower revelations suggest that they might have a valid case here.

None of those aspects of the case seem to address the underlying question, however. In the end, whose responsibility is it to regulate how many hours per day some children spend browsing and engaging on social media and what types of content they are consuming? Once the allegedly harmful content is out there in the social media metaverse, that’s the end of the story unless it is “moderated” away later. Anyone can view it. The schools can’t control what children are looking at any more than the Big Tech companies can.

In the end, only the parents and guardians of the children can do that. And it rightly should be their responsibility. It’s probably almost impossible these days in reality, short of taking away the child’s phone and other devices except when the parents are standing over their shoulders. But that’s the reality of the 21st century for better or for worse.

You can either argue that social media is too much of a disaster and ban it entirely or accept that it’s here with us to stay. And if there is going to be social media, our technology isn’t anywhere near the point where it can curate what’s being delivered to every user. I’m no fan of the Big Tech companies these days, but this lawsuit strikes me as a valid complaint being lodged against the wrong target. And I’m at a loss to suggest a more appropriate target unless you want to sue all of the parents individually.