New York City Sues Social Media Companies Over ‘Youth Mental Health Crisis’

Here’s a new element of the East Coast vs. West Coast beef: The City of New York is reaching across the country to sue tech giants headquartered in California over allegations that their platforms have created a youth mental health crisis. The city, along with its school districts and health department, alleges that “gross negligence†on the part of Meta, Alphabet, Snap, and ByteDance has gotten kids hooked on social media, which has created a “public nuisance†that is placing a strain on the city’s resources.

In a 327-page complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the city alleges that tech companies have designed their platforms in a way that seeks to “maximize the number of children†using them, and have built “algorithms that wield user data as a weapon against children and fuel the addiction machine.†The city also alleges that these companies “know children and adolescents are in a developmental stage that leaves them particularly vulnerable to the addictive effects of these features,†but “target them anyway, in pursuit of additional profit.â€

The claims that social media is addictive to underage users aren’t necessarily new. New York state, in fact, is part of a coalition of states that have sued social media companies for allegedly exploiting young users. But the New York City suit does bring some unique and jurisdiction-specific information. It cites data from the New York City Police Department, for instance, that show at least 16 teens have died while “subway surfingâ€â€”riding outside of a moving train—a dangerous behavior which the lawsuit claims has been encouraged by social media trends. Two girls, ages 12 and 13, died earlier this month while subway surfing.

It also cited survey data collected from New York high school students, which shows that 77.3% of the city’s teens spend three or more hours per day on screens, which it claims has contributed to lost sleep and, in turn, absences from school—corroborated by the city’s school districts, which provided data to show that 36.2% of all public school students are considered chronically absent, missing at least 10% of the school year.

According to Reuters, this lawsuit from New York City is part of a larger effort by other governments to hold social media firms accountable. There are more than 2,050 similar lawsuits in litigation. The city withdrew a previous lawsuit, announced by Mayor Eric Adams in 2024, to join this wider effort in federal court. By doing so, New York City immediately becomes one of the largest plaintiffs, with a population of 8.48 million and nearly two million residents under the age of 18.

“These lawsuits fundamentally misunderstand how YouTube works, and the allegations are simply not true. YouTube is a streaming service where people come to watch everything from live sports, to podcasts to their favorite creators, primarily on TV screens, not a social network where people go to catch up with friends,†José Castañeda, a spokesperson for Google, told Gizmodo. “We’ve also developed dedicated tools like Supervised Experiences for young people, guided by child safety experts, that give families control.â€

Gizmodo reached out to Meta, Snap, and ByteDance for comment but did not receive a response at the time of publication.