This Thursday (28), the main school boards of the Canada announced that they had filed lawsuits against social networks Tic Tac, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. The value of the stock is 4.5 billion Canadian dollars, or the equivalent of 16.5 million reais. The reason for this would be the harm caused to students, because the applications would create an “addiction” for minors. Thus, they maximize their economic benefits at the expense of students' mental health and well-being. Another consequence of the use of networks is the ease of harassment, racist and hateful messages, physical attacks, as well as misinformation. Schools also believe that by using these applications, students end up generating more expenses for schools, which have to find measures to deal with the situations and, therefore, end up spending more. “The defendants acted in a high-handed, reckless, malicious and reprehensible manner, without regard for the well-being of the student population and the education system,” says the lawsuit filed by the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto District Catholic School Board of Toronto, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and Peel District School Board.

In addition to financial compensation, the four Canadian schools — which are the largest school boards in the country — are asking the companies responsible for the four platforms (Meta for Facebook and Instagram, ByteDance for TikTok and Snap for Snapchat) to modify the design of school. applications. “Students face attention, learning, and mental health crises due to the prolific and compulsive use of social media products. The consequences of compulsive use of social media by students place enormous pressure on the limited resources of the four school boards,” the schools explained in a press release.

*With information from the EFE