New York City Sues Social Media Giants over Youth Mental Health Crisis
The City of New York, along with its public school district and NYC healthcare systems, has filed a lawsuit against Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube, accusing the tech giants of fueling a youth mental health crisis through the design of their addictive platforms.
The suit alleges that the companies intentionally engineered features, such as endless scrolling, targeted algorithms, and social validation loops, to keep children online longer, while failing to establish adequate safety measures.
These design choices, the city argues, have led to widespread harm to young people’s mental health, forcing schools and healthcare systems to bear the costs of the resulting crisis.
According to the complaint, the platforms “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.”
City agencies claim they’ve had to divert significant resources, including staff, funding, and time, to address the impact of social media on children’s well-being. Teachers, counselors, and healthcare workers reportedly experience burnout and secondary trauma from responding to students in distress.
The lawsuit also highlights the alarming spread of dangerous viral trends, such as “subway surfing,” in which teenagers ride on top of moving trains to gain social media clout. The complaint notes that multiple teens have died and over a hundred have been arrested for attempting the stunt, inspired largely by videos circulating on these platforms.
While Meta, Snap, and TikTok have not yet issued statements, Google, which owns YouTube, dismissed the claims. Spokesperson José Castañeda said the allegations “fundamentally misunderstand YouTube,” noting that it is “a streaming service, not a social network,” and that it offers parental controls through its Supervised Experiences feature.
This lawsuit joins a growing wave of legal challenges across the United States targeting social media companies for their alleged role in worsening youth anxiety, depression, and addiction. It reflects mounting pressure for greater accountability and regulation over how these platforms affect children.
Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, governments are obligated to ensure that children’s access to media promotes their well-being and to protect them from harmful content. Similarly, it guarantees every child the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
New York City’s action underscores a vital message: children’s mental health must not be sacrificed for corporate profit. Protecting young people from harmful digital environments is not only a moral duty, it is a fundamental child’s right.
