WEST JORDAN, Utah — The Jordan School District has been named the lead plaintiff in a major lawsuit targeting social media platforms over alleged harms to youth.
The district announced Monday it had been elevated in the litigation, filed in a federal court in northern California. It is among a number of school districts suing the owners of TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, claiming they are both a "public nuisance" and "negligent" in causing mental health harms to youth.
"Social media companies have designed a highly addictive product that harms our children," said Tracy Miller, the president of the Jordan School District's Board of Education. "And we’ve seen the impact every day within our schools."
Logan, an 18-year-old who asked FOX 13 News not to use his full name, said he experienced harms from use of the platforms and feeling pressure to live a certain type of life online.
"It triggered depression and anxiety," he said Monday. "I needed to disconnect. In whatever way possible. I found the easiest way to get off social media. I made the decision to get off for a week. What was a week ended up being three years."
Logan said he does not miss it.
"I think being able to ground myself and not associate with what other people think and feel as to a virtual version of me that’s not entirely accurate to the genuine person I am? It’s been great," he said.
In the lawsuit that Jordan School District is a part of, district officials claim they have been forced to invest millions of dollars in more student mental health services.
"Social media is an obstacle to students being prepared to learn well during the school day," said Dr. Anthony Godfrey, the district's superintendent.
The litigation was actually filed in 2022 and has made its way through the federal court system. It is more than 300 pages long. In court filings reviewed by FOX 13 News, the social media companies collectively have made a number of arguments including that the platforms cannot be held responsible for what third-parties publish and they have no legal duty.
"Courts have routinely concluded that publishers owe no duty of care based on their publication and dissemination of thirdparty content—even when that content and/or its presentation is allegedly 'addicting,'" a motion to dismiss filed in court last year said.
Court records show that U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers did stike some of the claims in the initial litigation, but allowed a lot of the lawsuit to proceed.
Beyond mental health counseling, the Jordan School District has contemplated other measures to restrict children's social media usage.
"We have had a policy already that cell phones can’t be used during instruction time. It’s very difficult to enforce. So as a board right now we are looking at options," Miller told FOX 13 News, referencing a potential cell phone ban in schools.
At Monday's news conference, Columbia Elementary PTA President Sharol Stapley sat with her children.
"I think the litigation is a start, but frankly that to me is like the umbrella," she told FOX 13 News. "What are you going to do underneath the umbrella? And it starts with the parents in the home."
Stapley said she has set guardrails on her seventh grade child when it comes to social media use, but admitted it is a struggle for her family.
"We have given our kids time on YouTube, but we have drastically cut down that time because what we were giving them? They were becoming addicted to YouTube," she said. "Now it’s like when we give them a little bit of time, they’re asking to get on it again. It should not be this way. [They] don’t ask to watch movies this much."
The state of Utah has its own lawsuits against some social media companies, accusing them of crafting addictive algorithms that harm the mental health of youth. Currently, lawsuits are pending against TikTok and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Social media companies have also sued Utah over laws it passed restricting youth access to social platforms.
The Jordan School District separately is participating in another national case against tobacco companies alleging harms to youth by vaping.
