New York City Mayor Eric Adams has taken legal action against the parent companies of major social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube, alleging their role in exacerbating the nationwide crisis of youth mental health. The lawsuit, filed jointly by the mayor’s administration, the New York City Corporation Counsel, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the New York City Department of Education, and numerous school districts, aims to hold these companies accountable for their impact on children’s well-being.
In conjunction with the lawsuit, Mayor Adams unveiled a comprehensive social media action plan titled “New York City’s Role in the National Crisis of Social Media and Youth Mental Health: Framework for Action in order to hold social media companies accountable and address the long term effects of social media on children.
“Our city is built on innovation and technology, but many social media platforms end up endangering our children’s mental health, promoting addiction, and encouraging unsafe behavior. Today, we’re taking bold action on behalf of millions of New Yorkers to hold these companies accountable for their role in this crisis, and we’re building on our work to address this public health hazard,” said Adams. “This lawsuit and action plan are part of a larger reckoning that will shape the lives of our young people, our city, and our society for years to come.”
Dr. Vasan, an advisor to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, likened unrestricted access to social media to a public health hazard, urging parents, caregivers, healthcare providers, educators, and policymakers to take measures to protect young people. Dr. Vasan recommended delaying social media usage until children reach the age of 14, emphasizing the need for regulation and mitigation of the harmful effects of digital environments.
“Social media is a toxin in our digital environment, like lead, air pollution, and nicotine are in our physical one,” said Dr. Vasan. “Environmental toxins require regulation, control, and mitigation, and public health must build on its environmental health legacy to address this modern threat.”
This lawsuit claims that social media companies have designed their platforms to manipulate and addict children and teens. The features which cause this include the creation of algorithms that generate feeds to keep users on the platforms longer, designing the apps to produce a similar feeling to gambling such as making the user crave “likes” and “hearts,” and manipulating users through reciprocity causing users to return to the platform constantly.
In New York City, a troubling trend persists among high school students, with over 38 percent reporting feelings of profound sadness or hopelessness in the past year, leading to disengagement from their usual activities. The disparity in rates of hopelessness is stark, with 2021 data indicating that Latino and Black students experienced rates nearly 50 percent higher than their white counterparts, and female students facing rates nearly 70 percent higher than male students.
Moreover, nationwide, the reliance on social media among 13- to 17-year-olds is concerning, with over one-third admitting to near-constant usage—a habit many acknowledge as excessive. Despite this awareness, a majority of these adolescents express difficulty in scaling back their social media consumption. Additionally, the screen time devoted to non-academic activities among New York City high schoolers is significant, with 77 percent reporting spending three or more hours per school day engaged with screens, excluding educational purposes.
“Frequent social media use doubles children’s risk for depression and anxiety. About half of adolescent users report a negative body image. The negative influence is so great that children are losing their lives trying to complete social media challenges to steal cars or ride atop subways,” said New York State Assembly member Jenifer Rajkumar.
“Our groundbreaking lawsuit is the first step to end this epidemic.”
