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Snapchat parent Snap Inc. has reached a settlement during a trial over claims brought by two teenagers who say the company designed the platform to be addictive, causing their depression, anxiety and eating disorders, attorneys for the plaintiffs said on Monday.
Jury selection began last week for the trial, the second in Los Angeles state court over claims brought by young people who say they became addicted to social media after Snap, Meta Platforms, TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use.
The plaintiffs had previously settled with Meta, TikTok and YouTube.
“Our ultimate goal is to hold these social media companies accountable for how their actions have impacted millions of children across the country, and these settlements allow us to keep building toward that goal,” John Morgan and Emily Jeffcott, trial attorneys for plaintiff K.D.B., said in a statement.
The trial was set to be the first for Snap in the sweeping litigation over social media’s impact on teens, after the company settled the other cases that had been scheduled for trial. The company’s chief executive, Evan Spiegel, had been expected to testify.
The case had been selected from thousands of pending lawsuits as a bellwether intended to test the claims against Snap and the other companies and potentially influence how similar cases are resolved. The next bellwether trials are scheduled to begin in March, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Companies like Snapchat have rejected claims that their platforms are designed to be addictive. The next bellweather trials over social media’s impact on teens are expected to begin in March. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)
A Snap spokesperson said in a statement that the company has built safeguards, launched safety tutorials and partnered with experts, and remains committed to “continually strengthening the safety, privacy, and well-being of our community.”
Plaintiffs S.J., a 16-year-old girl from Illinois, and K.D.B., an 18-year-old from Mississippi, say they began using YouTube as early as age 3 and the other platforms around age 9, developing compulsive habits they blame on features such as autoplay and infinite scroll.
The companies have rejected claims their platforms were designed to addict young people, and say they have taken action to make the apps safe places for young people to express themselves.
Meta agreed to a $16.68-billion US settlement over claims it designed its social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to make them addictive to children. The settlement was reached Wednesday during a California federal trial. Tech analyst and journalist Carmi Levy breaks down the settlement and what it could mean for Canada.
Wave of lawsuits
Social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts brought by individuals, school districts, municipalities and other government entities alleging the companies knowingly sought to addict children to their platforms, contributing to a youth mental health crisis involving anxiety, depression and suicide.
Around 30 states have filed lawsuits against the companies, court records show.
In the first case to go to trial, which ended in March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube had been negligent and awarded a young woman $6 million US in damages.
The next two teens whose cases were selected for trials either settled or dropped their claims against the companies.
The 20-year-old plaintiff, identified as K.G.M. in documents, was awarded $6 million US in damages. It’s a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that aimed to hold social media platforms responsible for harm to children using their services.
The first school district chosen for trial settled with all of the companies.
Also in March, Meta lost both phases of a lawsuit brought by New Mexico, and was ordered to pay $375 million US after a jury found it had misled consumers about the safety of its platforms.
In August, Meta struck settlements worth up to $18 billion US with nearly every state and U.S. territory to resolve lawsuits brought by attorneys general over claims its platforms harmed teens and agreed to make changes to how Instagram and Facebook work for teens.
The deal conditioned $5 billion US of the payout on the states reaching similar settlements with Snap, TikTok and YouTube.
Meta agreed for the next decade to restrict teenagers’ use of Facebook and Instagram to two hours a day, among other platform changes.
The lawsuits come amid a rise in legislation banning teenagers from using social media, such as an active ban in Australia and a proposed bill in Canada. Legal experts have raised red flags about this legislation, saying it may violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion US to settle a major lawsuit launched by several U.S. states over social media addiction and security for children. The tech giant has also agreed to make changes to its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
