The state of Arkansas filed a lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company Alphabet on Monday, accusing the platform of intentionally promoting addictive behavior that worsens mental health problems among young people.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has charged Google LLC, YouTube LLC, XXVI Holdings, Inc., and their parent company Alphabet, Inc. with engaging in deceptive and harmful business practices and violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Inc. in Phillips County Circuit Court. According to practices targeting younger users complaint. The group claims the platform's addictive nature has led to millions of dollars in state spending to expand mental health services for young people.
“YouTube amplifies harmful content, pumps users with dopamine, and fosters youth engagement and advertising revenue,” the complaint says. “As a result, mental health issues among young people are progressing in tandem with the growth of social media, particularly YouTube.”
I filed a lawsuit today @google, @YouTubeand its parent company, engaged in deceptive and unconscionable trade practices in violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (ADTPA).
YouTube is deceiving users and parents about the safety of its platform… pic.twitter.com/C0yoOfVnAA
— Attorney General Tim Griffin (@AGTimGriffin) September 30, 2024
As of 2020, the number of deaths from suicide in the state was more than four times the number of deaths from alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, making suicide the second leading cause of death among young people in the state, the complaint states. added. Additionally, teen suicide rates in Arkansas are higher than the national average and are on the rise in many counties in the state. (Related: Exclusive: Sarah Huckabee Sanders calls on government to save children from social media-induced mental health crisis)
Alphabet subsidiary Google, which owns YouTube and is also a defendant, disputed the claims.
“Providing safer and healthier experiences for young people has always been at the core of our work. We work with youth, mental health and parenting experts to provide young people with age-appropriate “We've built services and policies that provide an experience and robust controls for parents. The allegations in this complaint are simply not true,” a Google spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Seattle Public Schools also filed a lawsuit in January 2023 against the operators of TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, alleging that the platforms were designed to be addictive and were exacerbating the mental health crisis among students. I woke you up. School districts argue that this forces teachers to be trained to recognize and respond to signs of poor mental health and to educate students about the risks associated with social media use.
YouTube requires parental consent for users under 17, and accounts for children under 13 must be linked to their parent's account (AP). reported. Despite these measures, users can lie about their age because the site can be accessed without an account.
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