The Butler County Area Vocational-Technical School joint operating committee has joined a class-action lawsuit against social media companies, including Meta Platforms, Facebook Holdings, Snap, TikTok, YouTube and others.

Regina Hiler, executive director of the vo-tech school, said the “students’ mental health is the center of this lawsuit.

“Recent research has shown that social media has negative effects on mental health,” Hiler said, “including increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, thoughts of self-harm and suicide, fear of missing out, cyberbullying … and the list goes on.”