KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — Editor's Note: This story was corrected to reflect that 33 school systems across the state signed onto the lawsuit. It originally said 36 school systems had signed on, due to a clerical error that inadvertently included three school districts that had not confirmed participation in the lawsuit.
Several East Tennessee school systems have joined a lawsuit that's targeting several of the most popular social media giants in the U.S., including Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
On Tuesday, two law firms announced a total of 33 school systems across the state have signed onto the lawsuit. The school systems said they want "actionable accountability" and for social media companies to do more to protect children.
“With the ever-increasing use of social media among students, we’ve seen negative effects in the classroom, including disruptions, mental health issues and safety concerns," said Chuck Carter, director of Sullivan County Schools. "We’re charged with educating, preparing and protecting students and consider the requests in the lawsuit to be common sense solutions that could make a positive impact to combat these issues.”
Several East Tennessee school systems have joined the lawsuit, including Knox, Anderson, Blount, Claiborne, Fentress, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Lenoir City, Loudon, Maryville, Oak Ridge, Oneida and Sevier. Frantz Law Group in California is managing the lawsuit alongside Lewis Thomason in Tennessee.
Chris McCarty, who works at a law firm in Knoxville, is the attorney leading the lawsuits for Tennessee school districts. He said social media companies know their algorithms and are responsible for them.
"They seem to be having no interest in addressing the solutions to that. So that's going to come about we think in two ways. One, it'd be monetary judgment or monetary settlement. Because, to get the attention of billion-dollar companies, and some of these companies or multi-billion dollar companies, you have to actually show them that it's going to cost them money, to keep doing business, as they've always done without changing their behavior. And it's also school systems are spending real money to address these issues, we're having to have more counselors, we're having a contract with mental health services, to have them in school systems to account for these issues that teenagers have more and more, we're having school principals deal with social media-related issues all the time, rather than deal with the stuff that is educational that we'd rather than spend their time on," he said.
McCarty said the second part of the lawsuit is injunctive relief. He says those who filed the lawsuit want the companies to agree moving forward they'll make changes that will have a more positive effect on the minors using their sites and apps.
"Maryville City Schools' decision to join the litigation is a public statement to our families, students and teachers that we are concerned about our students' mental well-being and recognize the potential negative impacts of widespread social media use on students," Maryville City Schools said Tuesday.
Oak Ridge Schools said it hopes the lawsuit will spark change.
"As the complaint details, there is a wealth of research surrounding the negative impact the platforms have on the mental health of minors and we are hopeful that the lawsuit will change the way these platforms are available to and consumed by our students. The health and safety of our students will always be our top priority, and our involvement in the lawsuit is a means of advocating for our students' well-being above all else," ORS said.
McCarty said there are several ways social media companies can make a change.
"A simple change right now that they can make — let's say Instagram, if you have an influencer that is constantly modifying their photos," said McCarty. "And we know that we have teenage girls throughout this country that have body image issues causing anxiety and depression, right now, I think they could probably hit a button that says, 'We're gonna mark every single photo that is altered as to that not being the real person you're seeing.' That alone would do, we think, major good because it's allowing those kids to see this is not what real human beings typically look like."
The lawsuit names several companies and their social media platforms, including Meta, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Google, YouTube, and WhatsApp.
"We know that social media and social media addiction is causing body image issues," said McCarty. "It's causing anxiety, it's causing depression, it's leading to increased issues harassment of bullying, it's just, again, this den of constant issues that kids are going to. But when you're targeting, and you're using algorithms to target kids, and influence their behavior and to modify their behavior in a negative way, and you don't want to change that, then we're going to have to come to you and make you do."
“Controls for student access to these platforms combined with helpful resources have the potential to help parents, teachers and students as they navigate social media,” said William Shinoff, an attorney with the Frantz Law Group. “These media giants have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to protect children.”
The lawsuit was originally filed by the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Middle Tennessee. The lawsuits according to Shinoff have been filed in California.
McCarty says these lawsuits aren't saying parents shouldn't also monitor their kids' social media usage, but these companies should also make changes to help.
"They need to get to be part of the solution, not part of the problem," said McCarty. "They're leaving it only to parents and kids. And they're the ones supplying these kids with, again, an algorithm, a product or a service that is constantly causing the issues. And then they're saying, 'Hey, but that's up to you to fix it.'"
Tennessee is also one of several states suing Meta in a separate lawsuit filed in federal court last year. The lawsuit alleges Meta "profited from children's pain" by knowingly designing features on Instagram and Facebook to addict kids to its platforms, according to the Associated Press.
McCarty says there is no set deadline for when these lawsuits will begin, but usually Multi-District Litigation cases, or MDLs, like this one, move fast.
He says if other Tennessee school districts are interested in joining, they can email him at cmccarty@lewisthomason.com or call at 865-541-5256.