Hamilton County Schools became the latest in a growing number of Tennessee school districts that are joining a national lawsuit against social media companies for allegedly targeting students.
School board members unanimously voted Thursday night to join the suit against social media giants including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.
The lawsuit argues these companies are deliberately targeting students and young people for commercial gain and fostering antisocial behavior through things such as insufficient parental controls and the way platforms are designed to expose children to harmful content.
“Districts around the country are watching a tremendous increase in the number of disciplinary issues that administrators have to address, cyberbullying instances that occur during school hours and after school hours, and untold other problems that are affecting the school climate over which school administrators have no control,” said board lawyer Scott Bennett.
The lawsuit focuses on setting guard rails in place to make children less commercially tempting to target by these companies.
Other districts that have opted to join that lawsuit include Rutherford County Schools, Clarksville-Montgomery County School District, Cumberland County Schools, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
The Franz Law Group of California is leading the lawsuit. The same company also recently settled a similar lawsuit against e-cigarette company JUUL.
It’s uncertain how much money a judgement could return to the district after attorney fees are paid, but much like in Rutherford County, members of the Hamilton County School Board claimed money is not the reason they voted to join the lawsuit.
“There is some chance that the board will actually recover some funds here, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this,” said Bennett.
