- Two tribal nations are suing Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat over youth mental health.
- Indigenous teens are up to four times more likely to die by suicide than other groups.
- The Spirit Lake Tribe and the Menominee Indian Tribe say the company preys on vulnerable youth.
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Two tribes are suing social media giants, accusing them of intentionally luring children into their platforms and contributing to high suicide rates among Native American teenagers.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. One was brought on behalf of the Spirit Lake Tribe of North Dakota, and the other was brought by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. The lawsuit names Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, and their parent companies, including Meta and Google, as defendants.
“Given the historic teen suicide and mental health issues on our reservations and across Indian nations, Native youth are suffering from the consequences of intentional, profit-driven design choices made by these social media platforms. They are especially vulnerable to long-term negative impacts,” said Rona Jackson-Street, president of the Spirit Lake Nation, in a statement provided to Business Insider.
According to the Native American Youth Center, the lawsuit states that the suicide rate for tribal youth in the United States is 3.5 to 4 times higher than for other races and ethnicities.
“Scaling rates of suicide and mental illness are devastating tribal communities and pushing already chronically underfunded mental health programs to breaking point,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit alleges that the platform’s addictive nature is contributing to a mental health crisis among young people, including children on reservations.
The complaint said social media companies were preying on already vulnerable groups by “intentionally tweaking the design and operation of their apps to exploit children’s psychology and neurophysiology.”
Among other things, the lawsuit seeks “equitable relief to fund preventive education and treatment for excessive and problematic use of social media.”
“Enough is enough. Endless scrolling is rewiring teens’ brains. We are calling on these social media companies to stop the compulsive use of social media by young people on our reservations. We are calling for accountability for intentionally creating dangerous features that increase the number of users,” said Chairman Gina Kakaku. The Menominee Indian Tribe said in a statement:
“Providing safer and healthier experiences for young people has always been at the core of our work,” Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement to BI. “We have worked with youth, mental health and parenting experts to develop our services and policies.” These are young people with age-appropriate experience and parents with strong management skills. These allegations in the complaint are simply not true. ”
Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Other lawsuits have been filed over social media addiction, including dozens of state attorneys general who sued Meta last year. But these are the first lawsuits filed by federally recognized tribes over social media addiction, according to Robbins Kaplan, the firm that brought the lawsuits.
“These social media giants have used growth-at-all-costs strategies to generate hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue at the expense of Native children and teens and the tribal nations to which they belong. , our complaint alleges,” Tim said. Pardon, chairman of the firm’s American Indian Law and Policy Group and the tribe’s lead attorney, said in a statement.
New York City also filed suit in February against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, alleging that the addictive nature of these platforms is contributing to the mental health crisis among young people.
In response, Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., said in a statement: Associated Press The company’s app “has direct access to the camera, rather than a feed of content that encourages passive scrolling, and there are no traditional public likes or comments.”
The statement continued, “While we always have more work to do, our closest friends help us feel connected, happy, and prepared as we face the many challenges of adolescence.” We’re pleased with the role Snapchat will play in helping us do this.”
A TikTok spokesperson told the AP at the time, “TikTok has a number of features in the industry to support the health of teens, including age-restricting features, parental controls, and an automatic 60-minute time limit for users under 18.” We have top-class safety measures in place.”
Mehta also said the company wants a “safe, age-appropriate online experience for teens” and has dedicated features aimed at supporting kids and parents.