Three Alabama school districts are suing Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat, alleging that the social media companies have created a “youth mental health crisis.”

In a complaint filed on Tuesday in California state court, lawyers representing Baldwin County, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa City school systems called the platforms “unreasonably dangerous” and “addictive” products that are increasingly causing students to perform poorly in school.

“This youth mental health crisis is infecting all aspects of education,” they wrote. “Students are experiencing record rates of anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues because of Defendants’ intentional conduct. These students perform worse in school, are less likely to attend school, more likely to engage in substance use and to act out, all of which directly affects Plaintiffs’ ability to fulfill their educational mission.”

The lawsuit, Baldwin County Public Schools v. Meta Platforms, is the latest to join a swath of social media litigation taking part in California, where the companies are based.

This complaint alleges public nuisance and negligence claims under Alabama law, and seeks financial compensation, punitive damages and “equitable relief to fund prevention education and addiction treatment.”

“The harm created by social media companies has strained already limited school resources as educators attempt to combat the widespread problems caused by social media addiction,” Beasley Allen attorney Joseph VanZandt, who represents the Alabama districts, said in a news release Wednesday. “These lawsuits make it clear to social media companies that they will face consequences for their conduct not only from the adolescents they harmed but also from the people and institutions supporting our youth.”

As related suits over harmful social media content continue to play out in the court, school systems have remained largely quiet on the issue until this year.

Seattle Public Schools were among the first to sue the social media companies in January 2023, according to the Associated Press. Another Washington school district followed suit shortly after.

Experts recently told Chalkbeat that the stakes of these suits are “enormous,” and could radically reshape the internet if they succeed.

Still, the connection between social media use and anxiety or other forms of maladaptive behavior isn’t quite clear, they said.

“Is social media, by itself, and just kids’ normal use of it, solely responsible for the national trend we’re seeing in youth mental health? Probably not,” Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association, told the outlet. “From a scientific perspective we can’t say that, nor do I know that we could ever say that.”

At the time of publication, none of the school districts involved have responded to AL.com’s request for comment.

Read the full complaint below, or view it here.