New York

Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, said on Wednesday (Feb 14) that his administration has taken prominent social media platforms to court for fuelling mental health crisis among young people. The lawsuit has been filed in the California Superior Court and aims at Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat and TikTok. The lawsuit says that the social media platforms have been designed to "purposefully manipulate and addict children and teens to social media applications."

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These social media platforms are already targets of strong criticism and hundreds of lawsuits have been filed on behalf of children as well as school districts over their addictive nature, especially for youth.

"Over the past decade, we have seen just how addictive and overwhelming the online world can be, exposing our children to a non-stop stream of harmful content and fueling our national youth mental health crisis," Adams said in a statement.

There has been an increased push in recent years demanding social media platforms design policies and tools to protect children from content that can be harmful to them.

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Just last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the US Senate for a hearing during which he apologised to families for the impact that social media has had on their children.

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Reuters quoted a Meta spokesperson as saying that the tech giant wanted teenagers to have "safe, age-appropriate experiences online". Meanwhile, TikTok said it will tackle industry-wide challenges in order to keep the community safe.

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"We've built services and policies to give young people age-appropriate experiences, and parents robust controls. The allegations in this complaint are simply not true," said Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda, as quoted by Reuters.

Mayor Eric Adams also took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce the lawsuit.

"Social media has contributed to a youth mental health crisis in New York City. Today, we’re taking bold action to hold these companies accountable because our children, our families, and our future are more important than profit," he posted. The post contained the link to a page on the official New York City website that explained more about the lawsuit.

(With inputs from agencies)