Ontario school boards have commenced legal action against social media giants TikTok, Meta Inc. and Snapchat for “disrupting student learning and the education system.”
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), Peel District School Board (PDSB), Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) announced a joint lawsuit of $4.5 billion against the popular social media platforms which were filed in separate cases on Wednesday.
The lawsuit claims that social media products, negligently designed for compulsive use, “have rewired the way children think, behave, and learn, leaving educators and schools to manage the fallout.”
In a statement, the TDSB’s Director of Education, Colleen Russell-Rawlins, said the influence of social media on today’s youth at school cannot be denied.
“It leads to pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” said Rawlins. “Therefore, it is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation.”
The Ontario school boards cite students’ struggles with attention, learning, and mental health crises as a direct result of “the prolific and compulsive use of social media products.”
School officials are also calling on TikTok, Meta Inc. and Snapchat to “remediate these enormous costs to the education system, to redesign their products to keep students safe.”
