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From: BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com>
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Subject: Re: [OT] School boards launch multibillion dollar lawsuits against social media companies
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In article <20240328131230.00003892@example.com>,
 Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

> School boards in Toronto, Peel Region (the Toronto suburbs just west of
> Toronto) and Ottawa have launched lawsuits claiming over $4 billion in
> damages from operators of Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok and others. 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNNlplE19lY [12 minutes]
> 
> The school boards are making use of lawyers that are operating on a
> contingency basis so the lawyers only get part of the settlement if
> they are successful and no tax money is being spent on the lawyers.
> This implies that the lawyers are highly confident that they are going
> to win. I find that surprising given the vagueness of the claims made
> by the board and the difficulty of proving the damage done by social
> media in court. 
> 
> After all, I think there is a general sense that kids are spending too
> much time on social media but how do you prove that actual harm is
> being done, that the harm is exclusively caused by the social media,
> and then how do you quantify the harm in dollar terms?

And that even if there is quantifiable harm, how it's harm to the school 
district rather than the individual kids. I mean, if Instragram, et al 
have liability here, wouldn't it be the kids who deserve the money 
rather than some school board bureaucrats?

> If I was a lawyer for the social media companies, I think I'd have a
> field day defending them in the legal process. One of the first
> questions I'd have would be about the school boards' own rules around
> the use of social media in schools. Are kids allowed to use social
> media while at school? If so, why? Given the harm it is alleged to be
> causing, why would the schools allow kids to access social media while
> they are on school property?

Yep. Even if the schools' argument is taken as true, they'd seem to be 
guilty of contributory negligence. If these lawsuits are successful, as 
a parent, I'd turn around and sue the school, using their own arguments 
and precedent against them, and demand money for harming my kid.