TikTok, Facebook and YouTube sued by New York City for alleged harm to kids’ mental health
TikTok, Facebook and YouTube sued by New York City for alleged harm to kids’ mental health
The suit alleges that Meta, Snap, ByteDance and Google knowingly “designed, developed, produced, operated, promoted, distributed, and marketed their platforms to attract, capture, and addict youth, with minimal parental oversight.”
TikTok, Facebook and YouTube sued by New York City for alleged harm to kids’ mental health ::New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that his administration has filed a lawsuit against the parent companies of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube, alleging that their services are damaging to the mental health of young adults and children in the largest U.S. city.
It's not really alleged when they admit in their own interoffice emails that it's happening.
Permit me to express my dissent, for it is my firm conviction that they have unabashedly declared this to be naught but a cunningly contrived deception.
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience online has always been core to our work,” Google said. “In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we’ve built services and policies to give young people age-appropriate experiences, and parents robust controls.”
It's ridiculous to design an app specifically to get children addicted, then say it's the role of the parents to prevent children from getting addicted. The parents are literally the obstacle that Google is fighting against. The solution is to pass legislation that will force the apps to become less addictive.
We allow children to buy and use these devices but it's the companies who are at fault.
Like, hey, how about doing your job and making some new legislation?
I understand what you mean but they are also so ubiquitous it's hard as a parent to enforce. I try to delete YouTube from our TV's but it's nearly impossible. And if you tell kids not to eat the cookies, they are going to find a way to eat the cookies.
Yes, but we shouldn't be leaving cookies all over the floor for a toddler.
They should be put up, in a jar.
Yeah, it's way too difficult for parents to handle this. Where I live perhaps roughly 10% of parents even think of this as a problem.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The plaintiffs allege that the tech companies violated several city laws related to public nuisance and gross negligence through the design and marketing of their addictive products.
“Over the past decade, we have seen just how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a non-stop stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis,” Adams said in a statement.
“Today, we’re taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis, and we’re building on our work to address this public health hazard.
New York’s lawsuit echoes similar allegations made against Meta, Snap, TikTok and Alphabet in litigation filed in 2022 in the Northern District of California.
Multiple school districts and individuals claim the companies’ products “are defective because they are designed to maximize screen time” and that they have resulted in various emotional and physical harms, including death.”
Social media companies have come under fire from lawmakers who are pushing multiple bills like the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA, as part of a broader appeal for regulation.
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