OLD FORGE, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) — Within the 61-page lawsuit filed on March 13th, the Old Forge School District and its attorneys allege that social media companies and its algorithms purposefully try to keep people scrolling for as long as possible, and in that pursuit, it’s led to a veritable mental health crisis among teenagers. And the statistics are shocking.
While everyone is now used to endlessly scrolling, the lawsuit alleges it’s much more harmful to teens than once thought. Citing a 2023 survey of the 1000 students at the school, they say 22% and 24% of sixth and eighth graders have admitted to cutting themselves. Concurrently, a large portion of students have admitted to feelings of significant depression. 36% for sixth grade, 35% for eighth grade, 20% for tenth grade, and 42% for twelfth grade. The same four demographics reported getting cyberbullied at an average rate of 58%.
“A regular person, a reasonable person looking at this normally would say this is not healthy,” said Richard Rinaldi. He’s the plaintiff attorney who wrote the lawsuit, and as a father and alum of the school, to him, it’s personal.
“I don’t think people realize that the information that they have, by your habits on what you do on their platforms is quite valuable and could be used in a bad way,” explained Rinaldi. “And we believe that it has been in this instance.”
Starting this year, the high school, which runs from seventh to senior year, implemented a no cell phones in the classroom rule. When entering a classroom, students are required to put their phones in a slot before sitting down. The school says since implementing the rule, the number of students failing two or more classes has dropped 10 percent, and that it’s having a positive effect across the school.
“I’ve had a couple of students say that we should have did this earlier,” said Old Forge High School principal Michael Griffith. “You know, I mean, I’m engaged in a lesson or I’m talking more with my friends. And when you walk into a lunchroom, you know, we do allow cell phones in the lunchroom, for their time to, you know, catch up on whatever they need to catch up on. But you do see a lot more engagement amongst their friends in the cafeteria.”
But the fact remains that teens have access to the apps everywhere, but the classroom and the lawsuit argues that the companies should help pay for the mental health crisis they helped to create.
“It’s code,” continued Rinaldi. “And people who make that code have to be responsible for the consequences of it.”
The school district is now one of hundreds that have joined litigation in California that’s planned to start in June with all making a similar argument.
Fox56 reached out to Meta, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok, the social media platforms listed in the suit. Google and Snapchat responded.
Jose Castaneda, a Google Spokesperson, said, “Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work. In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls. The allegations in these complaints are simply not true.”
A Snap Company Spokesperson said, “We fundamentally disagree with the allegations; we do not target schools. We deliberately designed Snapchat to create a unique experience that encourages self-expression, visual communication, and authentic, real-time conversations, rather than promoting endless passive consumption. Equally important, the safety and well-being of all Snapchatters is a top priority, and our teams have worked for years to raise the bar on safety, and will continue to do so in the years ahead.”