Canadian schools sue social networks for disturbing students’ well-being

At the end of last week, four schools in Canada took legal action against the largest social media companies. School officials accuse Meta (owner of Facebook and Instragram), Snap Inc. (Snapchat) and ByteDance (TikTok) of negatively interfering in the education and well-being of students. According to the Reuters news agency, the school boards are demanding compensation of more than four billion Canadian dollars (approximately 2.6 billion euros).

In a joint statement released online, the four Canadian schools argue that the targeted companies “negligently designed and marketed addictive products that disrupted the management boards’ ability to improve student outcomes and well-being.”

The products, “designed for compulsive use”, “restructured the way children think, behave and learn”, causing learning and mental health crises in students, can be read in the letter, which also points out the extraordinary investment that schools had to do support programs.

The lawsuit was brought by the Toronto District School Board, the Peel District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board. Together, school boards represent more than a thousand schools.