Solod O’Brien: I’m Solod O’Brien. Welcome to Matter of Fact. There’s an entire generation that doesn’t know what life was like before social media. 46% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 say they are constantly online. And about 54% of them say it would be hard to give up social media. Several studies link the constant use of these platforms to depression. Even suicide. The CDC reports more teens are feeling persistently sad or hopeless and suicide rates have increased among young people ages 15 to 24. Now more parents and educators are demanding action. The Seattle public schools is suing social media companies, wanting them to pay for the damages resulting from the youth mental health crisis. Our correspondent Dan Lieberman went to Seattle for a closer look at this brewing legal battle.
Dan Lieberman: All these kids—it’s somebody’s daughter, somebody’s son, somebody’s brother’s sister. All these lives cut short. What we’re dealing with is an epidemic of unparalleled proportions.
Lieberman (narrating): Attorney Matt Bergman is the founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle. His firm represents some 1,400 parents who say their child was harmed by social media use.
Matthew P. Bergman: Children who die accidentally from the “TikTok blackout challenge.” Children that have developed eating disorders, severe depression, many that have been sexually abused online.
Lieberman (narrating): The social media companies and their algorithms, Bergman says, are responsible.
Matthew P. Bergman: These products are intentionally designed to be addictive.
Lieberman (narrating): This position on the effects of social media is the basis of a recent lawsuit brought by Seattle public schools. They claim that companies behind Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms design their products to be addictive even though they know the consequences of excessive social media use on young brains. The legal claim is public nuisance, which would be the youth mental health crisis impacting their schools. You break it, you have an obligation to fix it.
Lieberman (narrating): Dean Kawamoto is part of the legal team representing the Seattle school district. They argue that social media companies are legally obligated to pay for the damages to young people.
Dean Kawamoto: There has been a tremendous increase in the demand for mental health services. The district is doing what it can, but I mean, the Seattle Public Schools like school systems everywhere have limited budgets.
Lieberman (narrating): The district has more than 50,000 students but is only legally required to have one counselor per school regardless of the size.
Stella Rubble: I go to a school with 1,700 kids and there’s one mental health counselor for 1,700 kids. That’s not enough.
Lieberman (narrating): 17-year-old Stella Rubble is a junior at a Seattle public school. She’s struggled with disordered eating and has been in and out of treatment for years.
Stella Rubble: I would be feeling good about my body and then look on social media and see a girl with like a really tiny waist or something. I just felt like I had to become these people that I saw and that really drove the eating patterns and exercising patterns that I had.
Dan Lieberman: How many more kids are coming through the emergency room now with mental health crisis?
Dr. Yolanda Evans: We’re definitely seeing like, again, our inpatient numbers are increasing by, you know, over 25%. Um, so—
Dan Lieberman: These are all mental health?
Dr. Yolanda Evans: All mental health.
Lieberman (narrating): Dr. Yolanda Evans is the head of adolescent medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Dan Lieberman: Some people will look at this story and they’ll say, “Look, this is on the parents. The parents have to do more. You can’t just blame these companies.”
Dr. Yolanda Evans: Blaming it on parents is also unfair. Not every parent has the same access to monitor what their kids are watching online. And especially thinking about people who maybe are working multiple jobs. Putting all of the emphasis on the individual is not going to get us very far.
Teen Link Staff: Hi, thanks for calling Teen Link.
Lieberman (narrating): Stella volunteers with Teen Link, a peer-to-peer helpline where teens in crisis can talk to other teens who can empathize with their experiences.
Stella Rubble: There’s a lot of online bullying. People call in about just like wanting to harm themselves from things that have happened online and then other things, things that have to do with body image.
Dan Lieberman: When you started to see that connection between social media and eating habits, what went through your mind?
Stella Rubble: One thing that I did was I deleted TikTok, which took a long time. It was like me deleting it and then every day I would like redownload it and then delete it again. I would just like keep going through that cycle. Now I haven’t had it for like 6 months and it feels a lot better.
Dan Lieberman: How do you moderate and use the platforms differently today than you maybe did a few years ago?
Stella Rubble: I mean, one thing that I do is I like set a time limit. Like, you can set the time limits on your phone for these apps.
Dan Lieberman: Wow. So, what’s your time limit now on Instagram?
Stella Rubble: It’s 15 minutes, which goes by really fast.
Dan Lieberman: 15 minutes. That’s all you get.
Stella Rubble: Feels like 5 minutes.
Matthew P. Bergman: When you’re making a product that you know kids are going to use, and indeed your objective is to make them use it, I think you have a responsibility to make sure that that program is safe.
Lieberman (narrating): In separate statements, all five social media companies named in the lawsuit said they’ve invested heavily in the safety and well-being of young users with measures like screen time limits, parental supervision, and content blocking.
Dan Lieberman: For Matter of Fact, I’m Dan Lieberman in Seattle. Legal experts say in order for the lawsuit to succeed, Seattle public schools must prove a direct causal link between these companies’ algorithms and the youth mental health crisis.
Legally Edited and Fact-Checked by:
Matthew P. Bergman, Founding Attorney, SMVLC
