Social media companies are being sued by Canadian school boards for their impact on pupils

In a lawsuit, four Canadian school boards claimed that pupils had been affected by the goods of social media companies including Meta Platforms and Snap, and they requested over USD 2.96 billion in damages from them.

In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the boards said that the gadgets had “rewired the way children think, behave, and learn and were negligently designed for compulsive use.”
“Students have experienced learning and mental health crises as a result, necessitating increased funding for support programmes from the schools,” they said.

According to a number of studies, using social media sites like Facebook and Instagram for extended periods of time may cause anxiety and sadness, in addition to making the platforms addictive.

Up to 33 US states filed lawsuits against Meta last year, claiming that the company’s medicine was to blame for young children’s and teens’ mental health problems.

TikTok, a Chinese social media site for short videos, has also been included in the case.

The Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board are the school boards that adopted the decision.

The boards are associated with more than 1,000 schools, and Neinstein LLP, a Toronto-based legal company, is representing them.