Milwaukee Public Schools to sue social media companies over youth mental health crisis
Milwaukee Public Schools will add its name to a growing list of school districts that allege major social media platforms — Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat — are "substantially" contributing to a crisis in youth mental health.
Across the U.S., more than 1,400 school districts have filed lawsuits alleging social media companies intentionally target young people with their products and prioritize profits over users' mental health, according to Keller Rohrback L.L.P, the law firm MPS school board members voted this month to represent the district.
"(Social media companies) have made choices to target youth, to maximize the time youth spend on (their) social media platforms, and then designed their algorithms to feed children harmful content, like videos promoting eating disorders, violence, self-harm, and suicide," according to Keller Rohrback L.L.P.
The MPS lawsuit is expected to be filed in mid-February, according to a statement from the district.
The lawsuit carries no financial risk for MPS. The district is not responsible for paying legal fees if it is unsuccessful in recovering money, according to the already-negotiated contract between the MPS school board and Keller Rohrback. If successful, MPS would pay the firm a percentage of its earnings.
In Wisconsin and elsewhere, the topic of youth mental health has gained attention, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2024, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for requiring warning labels on social media platforms, saying the sites are a contributor to a crisis in youth mental health.
In Wisconsin, 34% of high school students had reported feeling so sad or hopeless "almost every day for two or more weeks in a row" to the point that they "stopped doing some usual activities," according to the most recent data from the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey Nearly one in five high schoolers, or 18%, said they had considered suicide.
A later report by the state's Office of Children's Mental Health cited the same statistics when calling youth mental health an "extremely concerning" issue.
The parent companies for Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok did not respond to request for comment.
A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, said "the allegations in these complaints are simply not true."
'Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work. In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls," reads the statement from José Castañeda.
More: Despite increased focus on mental health, myths and misunderstanding still common
School districts across the U.S. are filing their lawsuits individually, in either federal court or state court in California.
Keller Rohrback provided a list of other Wisconsin school districts involved. The firm represents some, but not all, of the districts.
Barron Area School District
Cornell School District
Cuba City School District
Darlington Community School District
Green Bay Area Public School District
Hudson School District
Johnson Creek School District
Kenosha Unified School District
Kimberly Area School District
McFarland School District
Milwaukee Public Schools
Prescott School District
Racine Unified School District
School District of Belleville
West Allis-West Milwaukee School District
Unified School District of Antigo
Cleo Krejci covers K-12 education and workforce development as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci. For more information about Report for America, visit jsonline.com/rfa.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Public Schools to sue social media companies over mental health
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