Pittsburgh, Ky., County Schools Sue Social Media for Nuisance, Negligence

Exploitation of children has become central to social media companies’ profitability, alleged Pittsburgh Public Schools in a redacted public nuisance lawsuit Thursday (docket 2:23-cv-577) in U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh against Meta, Snap, TikTok and Google.

Young social media users generate a “trove of data” about their preferences, habits, and behaviors, information that has become platforms’ most valuable commodity, said the complaint. Defendants mine and commodify that data by selling advertisers the ability to reach them, it said. Young people are not only social media platforms’ most lucrative market, but they’re also ones most vulnerable to harms resulting from their services, it said.

Adolescents are in a “period of personal and social identity formation” that’s “now reliant on social media,” said the complaint, citing a 2019 International Journal of Adolescence & Youth article. Receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter central to the brain’s reward system, multiply in the brain around the age of 10, said the complaint, citing a 2004 Harvard Review of Psychiatry article. During this phase, the brain learns to seek out stimuli that result in reward, including social media “likes” that provide a dopamine “hit similar to drugs and alcohol,” it said, citing New York University Stern School of Business Professor Adam Alter.

U.S. teenagers who use social media sites are likely to use them every day, said the complaint, referencing estimates that 62% use them daily. Nearly half use TikTok at least several times a day, and one study said teen social media users average 30 visits to Snapchat daily. Compulsive use can lead to lessening of control, compulsive seeking out of access, longer use, intense cravings, withdrawal symptoms when it’s taken away, neglect of responsibilities and “significant harm” to users’ physical and mental health, it said.

Social media’s impact on youth has been detrimental to U.S. schools, 97% of which provide mental health services to students, the complaint said. About 70% have made changes to the academic calendar to mitigate potential health issues for students and staff, said the district, which has 25,000 students from pre-kindergarten-grade 12 in 54 schools. Pittsburgh School District has spent over $400,000 in a teletherapy program to address mental health issues.

A survey of school districts by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association shows 79% of districts’ biggest challenges were meeting students’ mental health needs, including rising suicide rates. The district added 16 counselors and social worker positions for next year, a $2 million investment, it said.

Some 30 of the district’s schools have systems to collect students’ phones and manage social media use during the school day to “prevent or mitigate highly disruptive behavior” and keep students focused on instruction, the complaint said. Pittsburgh schools have devoted time in health class to teach about social media dangers and have experienced large fights between students initiated by social media; an overwhelming number of students experience cyberbullying from social media usage, it said.

Causes of action include public nuisance, negligence, plus fraudulent and negligent concealment and representation, said the complaint. Plaintiff seeks past and future damages to compensate for injuries sustained as a result of defendants’ platforms; exemplary, treble and punitive damages above jurisdictional limits; and attorneys’ fees and legal costs.

In a similar lawsuit, the Harrison County School District in Cynthiana, Kentucky, sued Meta, Snap, TikTok and Google Thursday for public nuisance. The 2,800-student district, with seven schools, seeks an order that the the major social media companies are jointly and severally liable, an order to abate the nuisance and an injunction from engaging in further actions. It also seeks actual, compensatory and statutory damages, plus attorneys’ fees and legal costs, said the complaint (docket 5:23-cv-00109) filed in U.S. District Court for Eastern Kentucky in Lexington.

Multiple similar cases have been filed across the country by school districts and individuals, including over 130 that have been transferred by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation in Washington to U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland under District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.