CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two South Carolina school districts are suing social media companies, including Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat, and Google, the owner of YouTube.
Fort Mill Schools and the Clover School District say content being promoted on these platforms is negatively impacting their students' mental health.
“Social media has completely changed the way schools have had to deal with the negative issues," said Joe Burke, the chief communication officer for Fort Mill Schools.
From body image worries to anxiety and depression, schools are sounding the alarm and paying the price for the negative impacts social media plays on students' lives.
“We’ve added eight mental health counselors in the last four years to help add more services to students to be able to address those needs," Burke said.
Many believe addressing those needs has to go further. Some experts say social media is the root cause of the increase in poor mental health.
“The students see the good, the bad, and the hurtful," Donnie Mitchem, director of Atrium Health Behavioral Health Services said.
Now, the two school districts are taking action by joining other school districts across the United States in a lawsuit against social media giants, in hopes of change.
“We’re hopeful that this will maybe help some of these companies put in some extra safeguards for kids," Burke said. "We heard last night that a lot of kids on this platform are in the 8 to 12 age range which shouldn’t even be on those platforms.”
In a statement, CSD said they agree "that social media agencies bear responsibility in targeting and providing unfiltered access to damaging content, and CSD hopes to affect change in social media’s awareness of their impact on our youth and its responsibility to improve their safeguards and practices."
Both school districts say they have also faced property damage due to social media.
Contact Lexi Wilson at lwilson@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.