💬 QUOTED: “Digital nicotine.”

If cigarettes were smoked online, they’d look like a certain mobile app with a musical note for a logo, a new legal complaint alleges.

A bipartisan group of 13 attorneys general sued TikTok yesterday, accusing the company of creating an intentionally addictive app that harms children and teenagers while making false claims about its safety, and of allegedly operating an unlicensed money transmission business through its live streaming and virtual currency features.

• TikTok says these claims are "inaccurate and misleading," and points to features such as default screen time and privacy settings for under-16s.

What does the science say about social media and mental health? Short answer: it’s complicated. A 2020 meta-analysis of meta-analyses (aka the gold standard of statistical reviews) found increased use of digital technology led to a small negative effect on well-being, but a causal link between the two was difficult to pinpoint.

However, it’s clear things are trending in the wrong direction. The CDC’s latest biennial survey on US high school students’ health and well-being, published February 2023, found the percentage of girls who reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness rose from 36% in 2011 to 57% a decade later. That figure is nearly double the rate for high school boys, which grew from 21% to 29% over the same period.

Zoom out: If being sued for alleged harms to children is cool, consider social media platforms Miles Davis. In addition to TikTok, Snap, YouTube, and Meta are all facing lawsuits in this vein (multiple in some cases).

🚫🖼️ STAT OF THE DAY: It seems Neil Caffrey is still hard at work. This month, the Van Gogh Museum exposed three privately owned “Van Gogh” artworks as fakes, including a faux painting that was authenticated by the very same museum in 2008 and later sold for nearly $1 million at auction. The fakes were discovered after a trio of museum specialists did a technical deep dive on Van Gogh’s known portfolio, and uncovered abnormalities like improper brushwork and coloring in the three artworks.

🤔 DID YOU KNOW? A sheep and a goat can mate to produce a hybrid animal called a “geep” (or sometimes a “shoat”).

📰 WORTH A READ: How do you win a Nobel Prize? A visual dive into the medal-winning scientists → (Nature)