NYC sues Meta, Alphabet, Snap and ByteDance over youth mental health

New York City on Wednesday filed a 327-page federal lawsuit in Manhattan accusing Meta Platforms, Alphabet, Snap and ByteDance of deliberately designing social media features that addict children and teenagers and have contributed to a youth mental health crisis. The complaint, brought on behalf of the city and its school and public hospital systems, seeks damages and injunctive relief, and joins roughly 2,050 similar lawsuits consolidated in federal court elsewhere in the country.

The lawsuit alleges the companies exploited the psychology and neurophysiology of young people by engineering features such as algorithmically driven endless feeds and persistent notifications to drive compulsive use and maximize profit. It accuses the defendants of gross negligence and creating a public nuisance, saying that the resulting harms have imposed costs on city services and interfered with the safe and normal use of public spaces including schools.

According to the complaint, 77.3 percent of New York City high school students reported spending three or more hours a day on screens, a pattern the city links to sleep loss, chronic absenteeism and declining mental health. The city’s health...