Ford tells boards to ‘focus on the kids’

Premier Doug Ford says school board lawsuits launched against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are “nonsense” and urged them to instead “focus on the kids.”

Speaking at an unrelated event in Ottawa Thursday morning, Ford said “let’s focus on the core values of education — let’s focus on math, reading and writing. That’s what we need to do, put all the resources into the kids … I don’t know what they are spending on lawyer fees to go after these massive companies.”

Rachel Chernos Lin, chair of the Toronto District School Board — one of four boards involved in the $4.5-billion lawsuits — said “as we’ve shared, there are no taxpayer dollars being spent toward this litigation. This lawsuit was launched out of concern for student achievement and well-being as social media platforms are having a real impact in our schools and on student learning.”

The Toronto, Peel and Ottawa public and Toronto Catholic boards filed their statements of claim in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice against the platforms and Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) on Wednesday, alleging they were “designed for compulsive use (and) have rewired the way children think, behave and learn” — and that schools have been left to “manage the fallout.”

The allegations have not been tested in court.

In an email to the Star on Thursday, a spokesperson for TikTok said it “has industry-leading safeguards such as parental controls, an automatic 60-minute screen time limit for users under 18, age-restrictions on features like push notifications, and more.

“Our team of safety professionals continually evaluate emerging practices and insights to support teens’ well-being and will continue working to keep our community safe.”

A spokesperson for Snapchat said it “was intentionally designed to be different from traditional social media, with a focus on helping Snapchatters communicate with their close friends … (while) we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence.”

The boards, in their statements of claim, are asking the popular social media platforms to make improvements so their products are safer.

The four boards are represented by Neinstein LLP, and will not be out of pocket for legal costs as the firm will take a contingency fee.

“There is no cost to taxpayers,” said Nancy Crawford, chair of the Toronto Catholic District School Board. “This is about student wellbeing. Social media platforms need to be held accountable for their lack of safeguards for youth.”

The boards’ statements of claim allege the social media companies “knew, or ought to have known, that their negligent conduct seriously and negatively impacts the student population by causing maladaptive brain development, compulsive use, disrupted sleep patterns, behavioural dysregulation, learning and attention impairment, and other serious issues that impact the school, learning, and teaching climate.”

At Queen’s Park, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said, “when school boards are putting a great deal of resources and time and potentially funding involved, it just demonstrates to me that there’s a better way for school boards to use their time on what matters to families and children, which is going back to basics emphasizing academic achievement as the foremost priority.

“I wish our school boards would do that … Our kids would be more proficient at reading, writing and math and everyone would be better off.”