Boston: Mayor Michelle Wu Announces Lawsuit Against Meta and Other Social Media Companies

Mayor Michelle Wu announced that the City of Boston, on behalf of Boston Public Schools (BPS), has filed a lawsuit against Meta and other social media companies, including TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, alleging that these platforms deliberately target minors with addictive design features that harm children's mental health.

"Social media companies have evidence of the harm they are causing to our kids by designing platforms that keep them hooked in endless scrolling and monetizing engagement at the expense of their mental health," said Mayor Michelle Wu. "Boston is taking legal action to protect children and youth and hold these companies accountable. Today, we are making it clear that social media companies must end exploitative practices and be accountable to standards of basic protection for children."

"Boston Public Schools provides critical mental health services for young people in our community through our counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses who have gone above and beyond to meet increasing student needs," said Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper. "We work hard to set our students on the best course for success through rigorous academics and whole-student supports, and the research is clear that social media has had a negative impact on students' well-being while benefiting companies. We all need to do what is right for our students."

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Over the past decade, BPS has seen a significant increase in student mental health needs directly tied to social media use. Consistent with national mental health trends, BPS children and adolescents have reported increasing mental health concerns since the proliferation of social media platforms' addictive features. For example, in 2021, 44% of BPS high school students reported persistent sadness, up from 27% in 2015. (Boston Public Health Commission, 2024).

"As an out-of-school-time provider, we see firsthand how social media addiction is reshaping childhood. We see young people who struggle to focus, to connect and to simply be present," said Alexandra Oliver-Davila, Executive Director of Sociedad Latina. "These Big Tech companies knew the harm their platforms caused and chose profit over young people's well-being. Sociedad Latina fully supports the City of Boston and The Boston Public Schools decision to hold these companies accountable, because our young people deserve better, in the classroom and beyond it."

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Recognizing social media's profound impact on student well-being and learning, BPS has adopted a comprehensive, data-driven response to the student mental health crisis that integrates prevention, intervention, education, and family engagement. To meet students' needs, BPS has exponentially expanded its mental health resources in recent years. BPS now employs 240 social workers and 105 school psychologists, as opposed to 6 social workers and 48 school psychologists in 2007. BPS leads the Boston School-Based Behavioral Health Collaborative (BSBBHC), which brings together more than 25 community mental health organizations to provide direct services to BPS students.

The City's lawsuit seeks to hold social media companies accountable by forcing them to remove their addictive features and compensate the City for the mental health support our students need. These platforms designed addictive features like endless scrolling, constant notifications, and targeted algorithms specifically to keep young people hooked. And inadequate age verification has made it easy for children to access these platforms with little protection. As a result, a generation of young people have been left struggling with mental health crises, and school districts have been the front line in this crisis.

Boston's lawsuit was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California and alleges the youth mental health crisis Defendants have created constitutes a public nuisance, and that Defendants' conduct was negligent. The case will be consolidated with the complaints filed by more than 1,500 school districts across the country.

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