By skyforbes 
New York City said it is in the midst of a “youth mental health crisis,” and it’s trying to pin some of the blame squarely at the feet of social media.
As reported by Engadget, the city filed a lawsuit against Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube. Along with its school district and largest public hospital system, New York City alleges the companies purposely designed their platforms to be addicting for youth and failed to implement effective guardrails.
“[Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube] have created, caused and contributed to the youth mental health crisis in New York City, causing damage to the public’s health and safety, interfering with the use of public places, including schools, and endangering or injuring the health, safety, comfort or welfare of a considerable number of persons, including youth,” reads the complaint.
The lawsuit also states significant resources have been used to address the “youth mental health crisis.” However, the lawsuit also states that has come at the cost of “secondary trauma and burnout associated with responding to students in crisis.”
Meta, Snap, and TikTok did not issue a comment on the matter. Google spokesperson José Castañeda rejected the claims made in the lawsuit.
“YouTube is a streaming service where people come to watch everything from live sports, to podcasts to their favorite creators, primarily on TV screens, not a social network where people go to catch up with friends,” said Castañeda.
“We’ve also developed dedicated tools like Supervised Experiences for young people, guided by child safety experts, that give families control.”