Snap issued alerts to students during class time, fully aware of the potential for distraction.

      From teenage ambassadors to classroom notifications, Big Tech's strategy for attracting school children has been unveiled.

      A review by The New York Times of internal documents from lawsuits initiated by over 1,400 school districts against Meta, Snap, TikTok, and YouTube has disclosed that these companies intentionally targeted students, despite warnings from their own safety teams about the resulting harm.

      The documents present a troubling narrative. Snapchat sent notifications to teenagers during school hours, encouraging them to share updates from their classrooms. A strategy document from Snapchat reportedly described using phones in class as “under the desk” time.

      Meta escalated this effort by hiring “teen ambassadors,” compensating high school students with $45 gift cards and branded merchandise to promote Instagram among their peers. TikTok contributed millions to the National PTA, partially to support school events focused on online safety.

      Did these companies understand the implications of their actions?

      Yes, and this awareness makes the findings particularly alarming. TikTok’s safety team advocated for disabling notifications during school hours for years, but company leadership dismissed this suggestion. A TikTok employee remarked in 2022, “Teachers are going to hate it. Kids already have smartphone addiction in class,” in reference to a feature that encouraged users to post within three minutes.

      In response, a manager stated, “If we assume teens are going to do this anyway, we’d rather have them here on TikTok.” Google shared similar accountability; a 2020 internal document noted that “investing in schools helps onboard kids into Google’s ecosystem,” while YouTube managers recognized that the algorithm was suggesting off-topic videos to students during school hours.

      What lies ahead?

      All four companies recently reached a settlement with Breathitt County Schools, a small district in Kentucky with around 1,500 students, for $27 million. However, this is likely just the initial step. The subsequent case involves Tucson Unified School District, which is pursuing over $1 billion in damages.

      Cornell Law professor Alexandra Lahav commented on the litigation as “massive, massive lawsuits” that could potentially cost these companies billions. The companies argue that the pandemic and other issues contribute to the teenage mental health crisis and share blame with parents and schools. Whether a court concurs is an entirely different question.

      Even if the court agrees, a billion dollars is a trivial amount for these companies. They will easily cover such costs while generating 100 times that amount in a year. Without criminal prosecutions against these companies for clearly causing harm to youth and the enactment of stringent laws by the government, issues like these are unlikely to be resolved soon.

      Rachit is an experienced tech journalist with over a decade of experience covering the consumer technology sector.

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