Rhode Island’s capital sues social media giants over youth mental health crisis

The city of Providence, R.I., is suing multiple social media outlets — including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok — for their role in the current youth mental health crisis, WPRI reported May 1. 

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YouTube and Google are also named in the lawsuit. 

“As part of this quest to maximize revenue, [the companies] exploit adolescent users’ still-developing decision-making capacity, impulse control, emotional maturity and poor psychological resiliency,” the lawsuit alleged, according to court documents obtained by the news outlet. 

Providence is seeking financial restitution on the grounds that the city has had to pay more for mental health services due to the social media sites’ alleged negative influence. 

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