{"id":2072,"date":"2024-03-28T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2025-07-13T00:40:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T00:40:32","slug":"social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In an unprecedented move, four major Canadian school boards are holding some of the world\u2019s largest social media companies accountable for the impact their platforms have on students. The boards, including Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, allege that platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have been \u201cnegligently designed\u201d to encourage compulsive use, negatively affecting children\u2019s mental health and ability to learn. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/3\/28\/canadian-school-boards-sue-social-media-giants-over-effects-on-students\">Seeking $4 billion CAD in damages<\/a>, these lawsuits could be a critical instigator for recognizing the tech industry\u2019s responsibility toward youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The influence of social media on youth isn\u2019t just anecdotal but is backed up by a growing amount of research. These platforms have been accused of creating an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newswire.ca\/news-releases\/ontario-s-largest-school-boards-sue-social-media-giants-for-disrupting-students-fundamental-right-to-education-841267917.html\">\u201cattention, learning, and mental health crisis\u201d<\/a> by rewiring how children think and act. Prolonged use has been linked to anxiety, depression, and sleep deprivation. According to US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, these platforms expose children to violent and sexual content and bullying, effectively isolating them from building meaningful relationships. Students are further experiencing distraction and a decline in academic performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"512\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png\" alt=\"An image of a classroom with empty desks with smartphones on them and social media app icons floating around, emphasizing the contrast between the learning environment and the pull of social media.\" class=\"wp-image-2073\" style=\"width:569px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png 512w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini-250x250.png 250w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini-120x120.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image created with <a href=\"http:\/\/gemini.google.com\">Google Gemini<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The lawsuits aim to bring systemic change. Using scientific evidence, the boards hope to prompt tech companies to reevaluate their algorithms and design choices. However, not everyone is on board. Ontario Premier Doug Ford criticized the lawsuits, urging educators to focus on core academic values instead. This divide highlights the ongoing debate over whether addressing social media\u2019s impact is hindering or supporting student success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The legal battle mirrors similar actions worldwide, such as lawsuits against Meta in the US. For educators and parents, these lawsuits are a call to prioritize children\u2019s mental health and learning in the digital age. The results will take time, but the question remains: Should tech companies be held accountable for student wellbeing, or are there other contributing factors to consider?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an unprecedented move, four major Canadian school boards are holding some of the world\u2019s largest social media companies accountable for the impact their platforms have on students. The boards, including Toronto District School Board, Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, allege that platforms like Snapchat, TikTok,&#8230; <a class=\"view-article\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/\">View Article<\/a>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":2073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,160,52,158,127,159,66,71,157],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-canada","tag-debate","tag-education","tag-lawsuit","tag-mental-health","tag-meta","tag-school","tag-social-media","tag-students"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back - Syngli - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Four Canadian school boards are suing major social media companies, alleging harm to student mental health and learning. Are they to blame?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back - Syngli - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Four Canadian school boards are suing major social media companies, alleging harm to student mental health and learning. Are they to blame?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Syngli - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-28T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-13T00:40:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christine Rizk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christine Rizk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/\",\"name\":\"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back - Syngli - Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-28T11:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-13T00:40:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/841a998b17ab5a4e92e152b7e02a7a58\"},\"description\":\"Four Canadian school boards are suing major social media companies, alleging harm to student mental health and learning. Are they to blame?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Syngli - Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/841a998b17ab5a4e92e152b7e02a7a58\",\"name\":\"Christine Rizk\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/722883075d325d6b4f26b09e6fba029eb453501864a13bd9b22b7ee35512c3ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/722883075d325d6b4f26b09e6fba029eb453501864a13bd9b22b7ee35512c3ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Christine Rizk\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/author\/christine\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back - Syngli - Blog","description":"Four Canadian school boards are suing major social media companies, alleging harm to student mental health and learning. Are they to blame?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back - Syngli - Blog","og_description":"Four Canadian school boards are suing major social media companies, alleging harm to student mental health and learning. Are they to blame?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/","og_site_name":"Syngli - Blog","article_published_time":"2024-03-28T11:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-13T00:40:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":512,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Christine Rizk","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Christine Rizk","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/","url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/","name":"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back - Syngli - Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png","datePublished":"2024-03-28T11:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-13T00:40:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/841a998b17ab5a4e92e152b7e02a7a58"},"description":"Four Canadian school boards are suing major social media companies, alleging harm to student mental health and learning. Are they to blame?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20240328_gemini.png","width":512,"height":512},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/social-media-on-trial-why-canadian-schools-are-fighting-back\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Social media on trial: Why Canadian schools are fighting back"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/","name":"Syngli - Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/841a998b17ab5a4e92e152b7e02a7a58","name":"Christine Rizk","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/722883075d325d6b4f26b09e6fba029eb453501864a13bd9b22b7ee35512c3ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/722883075d325d6b4f26b09e6fba029eb453501864a13bd9b22b7ee35512c3ef?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Christine Rizk"},"url":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/author\/christine\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.syngli.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}