The Wake County school system is taking the owners of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube to court, accusing them of creating a mental health crisis among young people.

The Wake County school board unanimously voted Tuesday night to join a federal class-action lawsuit against social media giants Meta, Google, ByteDance and Snap Inc. The lawsuit accuses the companies of financially profiting by targeting children to get them addicted to social media.

“These companies have designed their products to attract and addict teen and adolescent users, using targeted algorithms, constant notifications, insufficient parental controls, and endless scrolling, resulting in what the U.S. Surgeon General has described as ‘just not a fair fight’ between children and Big Tech,” said school board chair Chris Heagarty. “Over one-third of children ages 13-17 report using one of the companies’ applications ‘almost constantly.”

No fees unless Wake wins lawsuit

Wake joins at least 12 North Carolina school districts in the lawsuit, including Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Johnston, Union, Moore and Wayne counties.

More than 200 school districts across the nation are suing the companies. Additionally, attorneys representing 42 states, including North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, have filed litigation against Meta, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

Wake County would not pay legal fees unless it won the lawsuit. The attorneys would be paid a 25% contingency fee if the district recovered money.

Wake used a similar approach to win settlements against e-cigarette companies, accusing them of promoting a vaping epidemic among young people. On Tuesday, the school board heard a presentation on how the district will use $5.9 million in settlement money to try to reduce tobacco use.

‘Social media addiction’

Janet Ward Black of the law firm Ward Black Law in Greensboro gave a presentation to the school board to explain why the district should join the lawsuit. Wake worked with the firm in the e-cigarette litigation.

“This is an opportunity for Wake to come alongside those other school boards to help make a mighty force together to be able to change what’s happening with social media and the addiction that’s occurred,” Black told the school board.

Black told the board that social media addiction is causing mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and eating disorders among young people. She said it’s forcing schools to divert resources to help students in need of mental health services.

“We plan to change how social media companies operate, in order to safeguard children and adolescents, who are their most vulnerable consumers,” according to the legal presentation. “In addition, we seek to receive meaningful compensation for school boards for past, present and future expenses.”

In one instance, students at South Alamance Middle School in Graham were recording TikTok challenge videos in the school bathrooms as many as nine times a day, USA Today reported. The situation became so bad that South Alamance Middle School removed the bathroom mirrors, and the visits have dropped dramatically.

Meta didn’t respond Tuesday to the News & Observer’s request for comment. But Meta has recently announced stricter messaging setting for teenagers on Instagram and Facebook.