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Providence sues social media platforms, alleging they fuel youth 'mental health crisis'

A variety of social media apps on a smartphone. (Videoblocks)

The city of Providence is suing the parent companies of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms, alleging they are harming the mental health of children.

The suit was filed Friday in federal court in Rhode Island. It accuses social media companies of negligence and being a public nuisance.

The city claims social media companies like Meta, TikTok, and Google are putting profits over kids' health and that several national organizations say there's a national emergency surrounding youth mental health.

The suit alleges Meta and other companies designed their platforms to be addictive to maximize screen time and boost advertising revenue.

Todays youth are experiencing a mental health crisis fueled by the Defendant Social Media Companies, who are ruthlessly seeking to maximize profits at any cost and with callous disregard for the harm that their platforms cause to minors mental and behavioral health, the city alleges in the introduction of the lawsuit.

NBC 10's Molly Levine reports that Providence is suing big tech over the alleged harmful effects of social media on children.

The suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages.

"These social media companies have direct impacts on the social emotional well-being of our residents. Like any other company, they should be responsible in marketing and developing products and held accountable for the impacts of their products, which is why Providence, similar to other cities and towns across the country, is filing suit," said Patricia Socarras, Providence director of communications.

NBC 10 News spoke with a pediatrician who says regardless of the outcome, she is glad the issue is being talked about.

It is best parents be well aware of what their children social media use is, what platforms they're on, what they're seeing, and how long they're spending on it," said Dr. Elizabeth Lange.

Other cities and towns across the country are filing similar suits, with several national organizations adding that there's a national emergency surrounding youth mental health.

"Part of that was brought on by the pandemic and shelter in place we all had to do," Lange said. "Children are being exposed to all sorts of images on social media that many times parents aren't even aware of."

The lead lawyers on for the city are former state attorneys general Patrick Lynch and Jeffrey Pine.

The lawsuit names as defendants: Meta Platforms Inc.; Facebook Holdings LLC; Facebook Operations LLC; Meta Payments Inc.; Meta Platforms Technologies LLC; Instagram LLC; Siculus Inc.; Snap Inc.; TikTok Inc.; TikTok Ltd.; TikTok LLC; ByteDance Inc.; ByteDance Ltd.; Alphabet Inc.; XXVI Holdings Inc.; Google LLC; and YouTube LLC.

NBC 10 News has sought responses from the tech firms named in the suit.

Google said protecting children has always been a priority.

"Protecting kids across our platforms has always been core to our work. In collaboration with child development specialists, we have built age-appropriate experiences for kids and families on YouTube, and provide parents with robust controls. The allegations in these complaints are simply not true," said Jos Castaeda, a Google spokesperson.

Meta points to the tools it's developed to support teens and their families.

We want to reassure every parent that we have their interests at heart in the work were doing to provide teens with safe, supportive experiences online. Weve developed more than 30 tools to support teens and their families, including tools that allow parents to decide when, and for how long, their teens use Instagram, age verification technology, automatically setting accounts belonging to those under 16 to private when they join Instagram, and sending notifications encouraging teens to take regular breaks. Weve invested in technology that finds and removes content related to suicide, self-injury or eating disorders before anyone reports it to us. These are complex issues, but we will continue working with parents, experts and regulators such as the state attorneys general to develop new tools, features and policies that meet the needs of teens and their families," said Meta Head of Safety Antigone Davis.

Snap said it can't discuss the lawsuit, but it said Snapchat operates in a different way.

"Snapchat was designed differently from other social media platforms because nothing is more important to us than the well-being of our community. Our app opens directly to a camera rather than a feed of content that encourages passive scrolling and is primarily used to help real friends communicate. We aren't an app that encourages perfection or popularity, and we vet all content before it can reach a large audience, which helps protect against the promotion and discovery of potentially harmful material. While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping friends feel connected, informed, happy, and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence," Snap said.

NBC 10's Molly Levine contributed to this report.

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Providence sues social media platforms, alleging they fuel youth 'mental health crisis' - WJAR