A Maryland school district is among six others in the U.S. that were picked to go to trial for a lawsuit that claims several social media companies are contributing to the youth mental health crisis. 

Harford County Public Schools sued Meta, Google, ByteDance and Snap Inc. in 2023. The lawsuit alleges that the companies' addictive products have impacted nearly 4,000 students, putting pressure on the district to provide more mental health resources. 

School districts across the U.S. have also sued the companies, citing similar allegations. In Maryland, Anne Arundel, Carroll, Cecil, and Howard County schools joined the federal class action lawsuit.

"This is about holding tech companies accountable for the mental health crisis they've helped create, one that lands on the doorstep of our schools every day," Harford County Board of Education President Aaron Poynton said in a statement.

Heading to trial 

A U.S. District Judge chose six school systems to serve as bellwethers, or test cases that will go to trial first, ahead of the others. 

The bellwether cases include the DeKalb County School District in Georgia, the Breathitt County Board of Education in Kentucky, Irvington Public Schools in New Jersey, the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona and the Charleston County School District in South Carolina,

The court also chose five similar lawsuits that were filed by individuals to serve as bellwethers. The cases will go to trial sometime in 2026, court records say. 

"We are proud to represent the Harford County Board of Education in this litigation to hold social media companies accountable for their intentionally addictive and harmful products that exploit young people and disturb their learning environments. We look forward to this case advancing as part of the nationwide effort to address social media harms," said Attorney Matt Legg with Brockstedt Mandalas Frederico. 

Allegations against social media companies 

In the lawsuit against the four social media companies, Harford County Schools alleged that their students are struggling with mental health due to excessive use of the platforms. 

According to the lawsuit, the social media platforms are designed to target children and the companies profit from their addictive products, which include Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and more. 

"The algorithms driving these platforms are designed to exploit young users' brains in a way comparable to nicotine use to manipulate users into staying on the platform as long as possible," District leaders said in a 2023 statement. 

The district further claims that the companies know about the negative impacts their products have, but continue to focus on profit over the well-being of children. 

"Schools, meant to be a safe space for children, are now unable to keep up with the mental health service demand," the district said. 

Through the lawsuit, district leaders hope to force the companies to change their platforms and hold them accountable for the cost of addressing the mental health crisis. 

"We need the support and long-term funding to remove the financial burden from taxpayers and instead place it on the companies substantially contributing to and benefiting from this crisis," Harford County Board of Education President Dr. Carol Mueller said. 

Doctor's perspective on social media's negative impact

Dr. Rishi Gautam, chair of psychology at LifeBridge Health, says he sees the negative impact social media usage has on the mental health of children.

"It certainly is an addictive material," Dr. Gautam said.

Dr. Gautam says nearly 70% of his child and adolescent patients suffer from the negative impacts of social media.

"There is this need to present ourselves in the most pristine fashion on social media, and more so with the increased filters and technology that puts the kids who are consuming it in a competition and fosters a feeling of inadequacy and furthers feelings of depression, sadness, loneliness," Dr. Gautam said.

• Harford County