Westport schools joined a new lawsuit against YouTube, TikTok and other apps. Here's why.

WESTPORT — Westport Community Schools are now part of a national mass action suit against a number of social media companies whose platforms are popular among school-age children, including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, alleging these services have contributed to a "youth mental health crisis."

The School Committee voted unanimously to join the suit, being filed by San Diego-based Frantz Law Group, at their February meeting earlier this month.

The lawsuit alleges that the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube "are substantially contributing to the mental health crisis America's youth are facing," according to a memo from the law firm, which lists increased rates of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders and suicide in as some of the results of youth use, or overuse, of the platforms.

"The harms allegedly caused by these companies include, but are not limited to, intentionally designing, marketing, and operating their exploitive social media platforms to be extremely popular with youth users, despite research confirming the severe and wide-ranging effects of social media on youth mental health," the document reads.

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The defendants and their online platforms named in the lawsuit are:

• Meta, Platforms, Inc. and subsidiaries (Facebook, Instagram)

• Snap Inc. (Snapchat)

• TikTok Inc., ByteDance Inc. (TikTok)

• Alphabet Inc., XXVI Holdings Inc., Google LLC, YouTube LLC (YouTube)

As noted by School Committee Chair Nancy Stanton-Cross at the committee's Feb. 2 meeting, there is no cost to the district in signing on as a plaintiff.

More Mass. districts may join lawsuit

William Shinoff, an attorney with Frantz Law Group, told The Standard-Times that the litigation on the social media lawsuit was still in early stages having begun about a month ago; and, as of Wednesday, Westport was one of "less than five" Massachusetts districts to have signed on.

Shinoff declined to name the other districts for confidentiality.

"I can let you know that there’s about 80 [statewide school districts] that are going to be voting over the next month or two to get involved," he said.

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Out of the South Coast area school districts The Standard-Times attempted to contact, only New Bedford Public Schools and Old Rochester Regional School District responded, confirming they are not involved in the lawsuit.

Superintendent: Social media poses 'special' challenges for schools

Superintendent Thomas Aubin says Westport schools, "like every other school district," are all too familiar with the harmful effects alleged in the lawsuit. And while academia has always had its share of social, disciplinary and other issues to contend with, when it comes to social media, Aubin said, "This is something special."

"We're dealing with it on a daily basis," he said relative to the kinds of problems outlined in the lawsuit, going on to cite new CDC data released on Feb. 13. "When you get a report that one in three high-school-age women have contemplated or attempted suicide, I think it's time to pump the brakes and try to figure out what's going on here."

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Upcoming digital literacy curriculum to address social media

One underlying aspect of social media that makes it especially dangerous, Aubin says, is how it tends to blur the line between reality and façade.

"That's why this district is moving hard to develop a robust digital literacy program," he said.

"One of the biggest things kids are going to face is having to delineate truth from fiction, and because they get most of their information from social media, it's critically important that they are very sophisticated consumers of that medium."

According to Aubin, the K-12 curricula, currently being developed in conjunction with financial literacy programming, are part of the district's strategic planning for coming years, and should be ready to launch around 2025, he estimates.

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Westport, other districts await word on vape settlement

Westport schools' entry into the social media lawsuit comes as districts that had joined another national lawsuit filed by Frantz against nicotine vape-maker Juul Labs Inc. await word on how much they will receive on a Dec. 6 settlement in that case.

According to national media reports, that settlement amount is $1.2 billion. Shinoff declined to confirm the amount but said "a significant portion" of it would go to the school districts involved.

Westport school officials had voted to sign onto the Juul lawsuit on Oct. 20, joining 13 other Mass. school districts, including Wareham Public Schools, and the city of Brockton.

Shinoff said related litigation against partial Juul owner Altria Group Inc. is still ongoing.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Westport schools in class action lawsuit against apps YouTube, TikTok