by Dylan Sawhney
TikTok companies like TikTok and Instagram have started to face legal challenges due to claims made about their platforms causing addiction and mental health problems in children and teens.
Parents and schools have filed lawsuits against these companies, claiming that they were designed to make teens and children addicted to them. These have also been referred to as addiction trials.
The social media companies on trial often have customized ForYou pages, a constantly refreshing page, and a calculated algorithm to keep people scrolling. Short videos are tailored to the short attention span of teens today, and keep them scrolling for hours on end.
According to AP News, in internal communication between Meta employees “one person said Instagram is ‘like a drug’ and that employees are ‘basically pushers.'”
Despite this, companies such as TikTok and Instagram are denying these accusations, saying that their platforms are for entertainment, making connections, and even education. Many of them say that they have built in tools to prevent addictions, like parent controls, screen time limits, and content regulation to remove harmful content from their apps.
According to an opening statement given by Mark Lainer, a lawyer in the trial, “this case is about two of the richest corporations who have engineered addiction in children’s brains.”
Due to these trials, health professionals, lawmakers, and educators have asked for increased security surrounding these apps. A result of this could be changes made to age verification, screen time limits, and even stronger content moderation.
If the companies are found guilty for purposely poisoning children and teens for their app, it could lead to major financial penalties, lawsuits from other companies, and even more strict rules surrounding the apps in the future.
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