MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Montgomery County Public Schools has officially joined a federal lawsuit against several social media companies such as Facebook and TikTok.
MCPS is the largest school district in Maryland, with more than 160,000 students between 210 schools.
According to a press release from Frantz Law Group, MCPS is one of 500 school districts from across the nation that allege these social media companies knowingly cause emotional harm to children through their platforms.
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco against Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube and more. It alleges the companies have caused a mental and emotional health crisis. The schools claim these companies have brought higher proportions of anxiety, depression, thoughts of self-harm, body dissatisfaction, disordered eating behaviors, and low self-esteem among children and students.
The lawsuit accuses the companies of subjecting children to often harmful, exploitative and addictive content that encourages disorderly behavior, unhealthy social comparison, and cyberbullying.
The point of the lawsuit is to seek funding and staffing resources need to treat the damage that school districts say they are currently seeing.
Harmful hashtags are appearing on social media which could be in your child’s hands right now. We spoke with teens and experts about how they handle negativity.