Trillium Lakelands District School Board has joined other schools or boards in a lawsuit against tech giants Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok, accusing the sites of disrupting student learning and the education system.
The latest additions join four of Ontario’s largest school boards, who initially launched the suit in March. The lawsuits filed by these boards and schools claim social media products, intentionally designed for compulsive use, have rewired the way children think, behave, and learn, and educators within these boards/schools have been left to manage the fallout.
The new schools to join the lawsuit include public and Catholic school boards:
- Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB)
- York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB)
- Trillium Lakeland District School Board (TLDSB)
- Ottawa Catholic District School Board (OCSB)
- District School Board of Niagara (DSBN)
- and private schools Holy Name of Mary College School and Eitz Chaim
“The mix of public and Catholic school boards, and private schools in both urban and rural regions of Ontario demonstrate this is a universal issue that affects those from diverse cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. The addictive properties of the products designed by social media giants have compromised all students’ ability to learn, disrupted classrooms and created a student population that suffers from increasing mental health harms. As a result, social media companies have forced school boards to divert significant resources, including personnel, hours, funds, and attention, to combat the growing crisis caused by their products,” stated a joint release issued this morning.
The lawsuit, led by Toronto-based boutique litigation firm Neinstein LLP, is calling on social media giants to redesign their products to keep students safe. “These changes will result in a reduction in mental health harms to youth and disruptions to the education system. The lawsuit also seeks compensation on behalf of school boards for the losses related to tackling the crisis social media has created in our schools. School boards will not be responsible for any costs related to the lawsuit unless a successful outcome is reached,” states the release.
“While the use of devices in schools is one piece of the puzzle, this is a multifaceted problem. The announcement, coupled with the provincial government’s recent policies limiting cell phone use in schools, highlights concerns surrounding social media products. These lawsuits address the compulsive social media use happening both during school hours and outside the classroom, which continues to permeate the education system, impacting student learning and well-being,” adds the release.
“We see this as a critical issue affecting student learning and well-being. It is a starting point to reduce the compulsive use of social media and one of many approaches we are taking for the betterment of TLDSB students. If no action for change is made, compulsive social media use outside the classroom will continue to permeate the education system and impact student learning,” stated Wes Hahn, Trillium Lakelands District School Board.
To learn more about the lawsuit and to follow developments, please visit the Schools for Social Media Change Alliance at https://schoolboardsforchange.ca.
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Slightly different angle on big corporate greed. I resent it a lot when you pay lots of $ for a software package like from Microsoft and then they see fit to run ads constantly interrupting your work and trying to sell you upgrades or even a monthly charge for not showing the ads.
Remember I paid them for the software and that is all I wanted. I expect a working software package with NO ADS wasting my time constantly asking me to pay more for either unwanted upgrades or less ads.
It is no use trying to talk to Microsoft in case you have not tried. There is simply no way to do this.
I hate this practice with a passion.
I hope the schools have some success but wonder if a legal action is maybe not the best way to proceed here. Lawyers will get rich but I’m not sure what the end result might be. We already have a government education department or ministry (call it what you like) but it should be able to sort out a problem like this. That is part of what they are there for, right?
Years ago, I announced my intention to electronically jam cell phone use locally in my classroom so as to counter, even then, its obvious deleterious effects on learning. Too bad my efforts were deemed illegal. So we parked our phones at the classroom door. After hours overuse remains the huge runaway elephant out of the room.
Thank you, Trillium Lakelands District School Board for joining the lawsuit.
I’m a retired teacher and a parent. I am at a loss for words to describe the deleterious impact that these money hungry, powerful, social media giants have on children and young adults. That these products have “addictive properties” is an understatement.
Wes Hahn is correct; without positive action for change, “…compulsive social media use outside the classroom will continue to permeate the education system and impact student learning.”
I do hope all school boards join the lawsuit.