Canadian schools seek damages from tech giants for “disrupting education” | Abroad

The school groups from Toronto and Ottawa in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, believe the platforms are designed for “compulsive use” and have changed the way children “think, behave and learn.” And ultimately, teachers and schools have to deal with those consequences, it says.

This is the first time such an approach has been used in Canada. On the other side of the border, American schools filed a similar lawsuit in 2023.

This indictment is aimed at Meta – owner of Facebook and Instagram – but also Snap, owned by Snapchat, as well as the Chinese company TikTok and its parent company ByteDance.

“Social media companies must be held accountable for their negligence and the harm they have caused to our schools and our community as a whole,” Duncan Embury, chief legal officer for the Ottawa-Carleton schools group, said in a statement.

They demand damages for the disruption of the learning capacity of students and the education system. “The impact of compulsive social networking among students places significant strain on limited resources,” the schools said, noting the need for additional resources for programs and staff specializing in mental health.