Four of Ontario’s largest school boards have filed lawsuits against the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and TikTok, alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student learning.
The lawsuits claim the platforms were negligently designed for compulsive use and have changed the way children think, behave and learn, leaving teachers and schools to deal with the consequences.
They claim that students are experiencing an attention, learning and mental health crisis due to prolific and compulsive use of social media.
“The impacts of compulsive social media use among students are placing significant strain on the limited resources of all four school boards, including additional needs for school mental health programming and staffing, an increase in additional IT costs and administrative resources,” the school boards said in a news release Thursday.
The allegations contained in the lawsuits filed in the Ontario Superior Court have not been proven.
The school boards bringing the lawsuit are: the Toronto District School Board, the Peel District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
They are seeking damages for disruption to student learning and the education system.
Meta Platforms is behind Facebook and Instagram, Snap owns SnapChat, and ByteDance owns TikTok.
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