Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a lawsuit against YouTube alleging that it has engaged in “deceptive and unconscionable trade practices” to induce addiction.
“YouTube has deceived users and parents about the safety of its platforms for youth,” Griffin said in a statement. “YouTube has profited substantially off young Arkansans because it deliberately designed its platform to be addictive by using features to keep users engaged for as long as possible.”
Griffin filed the suit in Phillips County Circuit Court against YouTube’s parent company Alphabet, in addition to Google and XVVI Holdings—which the lawsuit collectively refers to as YouTube or the defendant—alleging that Google “deliberately designed” YouTube to get children addicted.
This has contributed to a growing mental health crisis in the state, with children 13 to 17 saying they use YouTube every day, he said.
“One of the gravest public health threats to children in the United States today is the soaring rate of mental and behavioral health disorders, including depression, self-harm, body dysmorphia, and increased suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide,” Griffin said.
“This increase in mental health problems among children is the result of calculated efforts by social-media companies like YouTube to attract and addict youth to their platforms and to grow revenues without regard for the harmful effects that these companies know exist.”
Among the hazards is the algorithm designed to override the prefrontal cortices, or the part of the brain that supports self-regulation, which isn’t as fully developed in children, the suit says.
This makes minors “particularly vulnerable” to social media addiction and stimulates dopamine in the brain with “carefully calibrated features known to keep users engaged for as long, as frequently, and as intensely as possible,” the suit says.
“YouTube amplifies harmful material, doses users with dopamine hits, and drives youth engagement and advertising revenue. As a result, youth mental health problems have advanced in lockstep with the growth of social media, and in particular, YouTube.”
The Epoch Times contacted YouTube and Google for comment but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.
A spokesperson for Alphabet’s Google denied the allegations in a statement to The Associated Press.
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work,“ Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said. ”In collaboration with youth, mental health and parenting experts, we built services and policies to provide young people with age-appropriate experiences, and parents with robust controls. The allegations in this complaint are simply not true.”
YouTube addiction has had a devastating impact on Arkansas’s youth, the lawsuit says, leaving the state to “pour millions of dollars into expanding mental health and other services” for children.
“As of 2020, more than four times as many people died by suicide than in alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents in Arkansas, and suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth in the state,” the suit says.
“Teen suicide in Arkansas exceeds the average in the United States and has been on the rise in many Arkansas counties.”
Griffin said he seeks to hold YouTube accountable under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which prohibits creating a public nuisance and negatively impacting citizens’ health and safety.
Griffin has filed suit against YouTube on one count of violating the Arkansas Public Nuisance Law, one count of violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and one count of unjust enrichment, alleging that the defendant has made money from a product falsely representing itself as safe.
“YouTube’s algorithms push its young users down rabbit holes where they are likely to encounter content that is violent, sexual, or creates harmful body image issues that can manifest as eating disorders, encourage self-harm, or yield other types of harmful conduct,” the suit says
Though YouTube requires that users under 17 get their parents’ permission and that children under 13 access the platform from their parents’ accounts, there’s no foolproof way to deny access to those who lie about their age.
In 2023, Griffin sued Facebook, Instagram, Meta, and TikTok for allegedly deceiving users and parents about the safety of their apps. In September, Griffin joined a bipartisan coalition of 41 other attorneys general in a letter urging Congress to pass legislation requiring a U.S. Surgeon General warning label on all algorithm-driven social media platforms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
