Bucks County is believed to be the first county government in the country to file a lawsuit against major social media companies, including Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, and Google, owner of YouTube, reports Matt O’Donnell of Inside Story for 6abc.

The lawsuit alleges that social media sites are causing harm to the mental health of youth in the community.

“These social media products are deliberately engineered to exploit the frailties of children’s developing brains and maximize their engagement using many of the same techniques found in slot machines,” states the lawsuit.

Leaders of Bucks County said they are seeing a mental health crisis among the community’s children and they do not have mental care infrastructure large enough to handle a problem of this size. The constant use of social media is causing depression, anxiety and body image problems, among many other issues.

While taking on companies with combined market caps of trillions of dollars is a daunting task, somebody has to start, said Diane Ellis-Marseglia, Vice Chair of the Bucks County Commissioners.

“Somebody has to speak up,” she added. “I’ve said many times that in 1776, Bucks County stood up, and we’re going to do it again here.”

Watch the entire segment at 6abc.

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