Public district boards are saying that products from Meta, Snap Inc., and, ByteDance Ltd. products are allegedly designed to rewire the way children think, act, and learn. They are under a new coalition called Schools for Social Media Change and belive that students are being negatively impacted by exessive use of social media.
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“Attention, learning, and mental health crisis” because of “prolific and compulsive use of social media products,”- News Release from Schools for Social Media Change.
The coallition says that the apps promote cyber bullying, missinformation, and have been escalating violence in schools. Additionally, the argue they are designed to show harmful content like suicidal ideation, drugs, self-harm, alcohol, eating disorders, hate speech and content that promotes non-consensual secual activity.
“These social media companies … have knowingly created a product that is addictive and marketed to kids,” – Rachel Chernos Lin, the chair of the Toronto District School Board.
Ontario Premiere Doug Ford disagress with the lawsuits for two reasons;
“We banned cellphones in the classroom, so I don’t know what the kids are using…What are they spending on lawyer fees to go after these massive companies that have endless cash to fight this?” – Doug Ford Ontario Premiere.
