According to court documents, Meta will pay the largest amount – $9 million, Reuters reports. The owners of TikTok and Snapchat, ByteDance and Snap, will each pay $8 million. YouTube will pay about $2.01 million.
The lawsuit was filed by the Breathitt County school district in Kentucky. County officials claimed that the social platforms were designed to maximize the attention span of young users. This contributed to an increase in anxiety, depression and self-harm among high school students.
Meta reached the agreement in May 2024, weeks before the lawsuit began. Snap, YouTube and ByteDance had previously reached similar agreements with the district.
The tech giants did not admit guilt
None of the agreements include an admission of guilt on the part of the companies. Nor do they contain any obligation to change the algorithms, features or operating principles of the platforms.
Meta, YouTube and Snap said they settled the dispute out of court and continue to develop safety tools for underage users. TikTok did not provide comment to Reuters.
The school district originally sought more than $60 million in funding for student mental health support programs, including a proposed 15-year initiative to help children and teens. In addition, the plaintiffs sought a court order that would require the companies to change features of the platforms they called addictive.
Lawsuits have been filed by 1,200 other U.S. school districts
The case was considered one of the key cases in a massive wave of litigation against social media in the US. According to Reuters, more than 1,200 school districts across the country have filed similar lawsuits alleging that social media platforms contribute to the deteriorating mental health of children and teens.
Among the largest plaintiffs is the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona, which is seeking more than $1.1 billion to implement a long-term mental health support program for students. School systems in Los Angeles and New York have also filed lawsuits.
The settlement comes amid legal pressure on technology companies. According to Reuters, more than 3,300 lawsuits related to alleged social media addiction are pending in California state courts, and about 2,400 more cases are in U.S. federal courts. They are initiated by individuals, municipalities, state authorities and educational institutions.
