San Mateo County school officials filed a lawsuit this week alleging three major social media companies—YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat—are designed to be purposefully addictive and that the platforms have sparked a mental health crisis among young people. In the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the San Mateo County Board of Education and Superintendent Nancy Magee claim the social media giants designed their products to target youth at the expense of their mental health. The suit alleges the platforms harm schools, inhibit education, increase absenteeism and are even responsible for physical damage to school property. “There is hard science behind the claim that social media is fueling a mental health epidemic in school-age children,” Magee said in a news release.

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