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More than 100 Indiana school districts are suing social media developers Meta, TikTok, Snapchat and Google for designing products that allegedly lead to addictive and harmful behavior by adolescents.
The lawsuits are a part of a multidistrict litigation effort that includes more than 2,000 school districts nationwide and accuses the companies of developing social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, that endanger children and teens and have resulted in rampant youth mental health issues.
The case was originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 2022, but has since been added to by state attorneys general and school districts. The school districts are charging the companies with public nuisance and negligence claims.
The suit includes districts throughout the state, including Indianapolis Public Schools, Hamilton Southeastern Schools, Carmel Clay and most other districts in central Indiana.
As youth mental health continues to be a growing concern in the country, the lawsuits argue these social media developers are partly to blame.
“School districts and local governments are on the front lines of redressing the damage caused by Defendants’ deliberate choice to design, develop, operate, promote, distribute, and market their social media platforms to attract and addict youth,” the 2023 master complaint stated.
The lawsuits claim the social media developers “intentionally induced young people to use their platforms compulsively,” targeting their addictive vulnerability for more profits.
“While presented as ‘social,’ Defendants’ platforms have promoted disconnection and disassociation, resulting in substantial mental harms that are now left to school districts and local communities to address,” the complaint stated.
The Indiana Lawyer reached out to Austin Brane, an attorney with Kansas City-based Wagstaff & Cartmell, who is representing several Indiana school districts in the case, for comment on Friday, but did not receive a response before the deadline.
The Lawyer also reached out to several Indiana school districts for comment on the lawsuit, but did not receive responses in time.
As the legal battle continues, with at least one of the lawsuits getting a trial date set for June 2026, Indiana leaders are taking a hard-line approach to limit social media use in schools.
Earlier this week, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed two pieces of legislation focused on youth social media use: Senate Enrolled Act 78 and House Enrolled Act 1408.
SEA 78 requires public schools to adopt policies that prohibit students from accessing their phones while at school, and HEA 1408 requires Hoosiers under 16 to get parental consent to use social media apps.
HEA 1408’s restrictions would only apply to those companies that report more than $1 billion in revenue, which would include all of the companies named in the federal lawsuits.
According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention data, in 2023, about two in five high schoolers reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness in the past year, and one in five reported seriously considering attempting suicide in the past year.
The federal case is IN RE: SOCIAL MEDIA ADOLESCENT ADDICTION/PERSONAL INJURY PRODUCTS LIABILITY LITIGATION (4:22-md-03047-YGR).
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