By Prudence Brighton, Sun Correspondent
The School Committee voted to join some 500 school districts across the country, including about a dozen in Massachusetts, in a lawsuit seeking to make social media platforms safer for children and teens.
Superintendent of Schools Steven Stone told the board “there is growing action against social media companies.” He invited William Shinoff, an attorney in California, to join the board’s June 26 meeting to explain the large lawsuit he is managing.
Shinoff explained that it is not a class action lawsuit. Instead, he called it a mass action lawsuit. In a class action suit, one individual, or group, acts as plaintiffs, representing a larger group.
In a mass action suit, also known as a mass tort suit, “We file individual lawsuits for every member school district,” Shinoff said. ”These are consolidated in our California law office.“
The mass action suit seeks injunctive and monetary relief against Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Since 2015, Alphabet has been the parent company of Google.
Social media companies have been implicated in mental health problems in children and teens, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and thoughts of suicide ideation, according to Shinoff.
The suit was prompted by a whistleblower’s testimony to Congress last year, Shinoff explained. He added that US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy recently issued an advisory on the mental health problems that social media is associated with.
Because the lawsuits are individual, each district has the flexibility to settle independently of other districts.
The injunctive relief is aimed at issues such as parental control over what children and teens have access to. Monetary relief might be used by school districts to develop resources to help combat the harm done to young users of these sites.