A Washington district has taken the next step in joining federal litigation against social media companies, accusing their platforms of causing harm to students.
“Tacoma Public Schools could sue Meta, ByteDance and other major corporations in federal court in Northern California, where hundreds of plaintiffs, including school districts and local governments, have joined the multi-district litigation (MDL) — a federal legal process consolidating similar but separately filed lawsuits,” explained The News Tribune.
The district, which enrolled approximately 28,700 students at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year, approved a May 28 board resolution to participate as a plaintiff in the MDL, the news outlet reported.
“There are 1,000 individual plaintiffs, more than 400 school districts and 43 attorneys general involved in the litigation based in Oakland, California, according to the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing some families.”
‘Intentionally engineered to target and addict young users’
The law center is basing its arguments over the design of these social media platforms, which they say have been documented to damage children’s mental health.
“The federal social media addiction litigation is about accountability for design choices — features intentionally engineered to target and addict young users,” said Matthew P. Bergman, founding attorney for the law center.
Bergman pointed journalists to several recent lawsuits, including one in Los Angeles where a 19-year-old girl, identified as “K.G.M.,” argued her social media use exacerbated her challenges with suicidal thoughts and depression.
“We’ve already seen what happens when juries hear the evidence,” Bergman concluded. “In Los Angeles, the KGM verdict held Meta and YouTube liable for addictive design features, and in New Mexico another jury found Meta’s products violate state law by harming kids’ mental health.”
Meanwhile, a Kentucky school district has obtained approximately $27 million in settlements from Meta and other social media corporations last month after it argued they had “fueled a student mental-health crisis,” according to Reuters.
“The settlements did not require the companies to admit liability and include no agreements to make changes to the social media platforms.”
‘A vulnerable period for addictive behaviors’
As previously reported by The Lion, an increasing number of studies have warned about the dangers of excessive screen use for teenagers.
“Adolescence is a vulnerable period for addictive behaviors, and recent findings suggest that young adolescents are particularly susceptible to screen addiction,” the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) noted in June 2025.
Addiction can lead to an increase in suicidal behaviors and thoughts, as well as worsened mental health, JAMA editorialists concluded.
“These statistics highlight the need to study screen addiction and its specific health effects, as understanding these behaviors is crucial for addressing the risks they pose to adolescents’ well-being.”
