New York City, USA, has filed a lawsuit against major social media outlets for harming youth mental health.
New York Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference on the 14th (local time) and filed a lawsuit against the operators of five SNS platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube – in California, where the companies’ headquarters are located.
The lawsuit is in accordance with the recommendation of the New York City Health and Mental Health Department, which defines unrestricted access and use of SNS as a public health risk, the city explained. New York City claims that companies that operate SNS deliberately designed addictive platforms and used harmful algorithms targeting adolescents to expand their profits.
“Over the past decade, we have seen how addictive and powerful the online world is,” Mayor Adams said. “SNS has promoted the mental health crisis of children across the country by constantly exposing harmful content to children.”
As social media promotes the mental health crisis of adolescents, New York City spends more than $100 million annually on mental health-related programs and services alone.
New York City plans to improve the behavior of SNS-run companies through continuous litigation and even recover the cost of solving youth mental health problems.
Lawsuits by the U.S. and governments against SNS platform companies have continued.
In October last year, 41 U.S. states filed a lawsuit against Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, saying that children and teenagers are suffering from mental health due to excessive addiction, and in July last year, 200 U.S. offices of education filed a class lawsuit against Meta, TikTok, and YouTube, saying that SNS causes mental damage to teenagers such as depression and anxiety.
In this age of social media influence, adults cannot stop teenagers from using social media. Social media has positive influence, too. The more teenagers use social media, the more responsible social media operators should try not to expose harmful content to teenagers.
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
