Meta has reached a settlement with a Kentucky school district that accused the company and other major social media platforms of contributing to a youth mental health crisis through addictive product design, ending a closely watched case weeks before it was scheduled to go to trial.
The settlement resolves claims brought by Breathitt County School District, a rural district in eastern Kentucky, against Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube. The district argued that social media companies designed products that encouraged compulsive use among children and teenagers, leading to mental health and educational challenges that schools were left to address. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The Associated Press reported that Meta settled Thursday after the district had already reached agreements with the other defendants earlier in the week.
The lawsuit had been selected as a bellwether case among roughly 1,200 similar lawsuits filed by school districts across the U.S.. Such cases are often used to test legal arguments and gauge how juries may respond before larger groups of cases move forward. The trial had been scheduled to begin in June in federal court in Oakland, California, according to Reuters.
Breathitt County School District sought more than $60 million to fund a 15-year program aimed at addressing mental health and learning issues that it said were linked to social media use among students. The district also sought changes to platform features it described as addictive.
Meta said the matter had been resolved amicably. In a statement cited by The Associated Press, the company said it remains focused on safety measures for younger users, including its Teen Accounts program and parental control tools.
Lawyers representing the school districts said their work on the broader litigation continues despite the settlement. Attorneys said their focus remains on pursuing claims filed by the remaining school districts involved in the litigation.
The settlement comes amid growing legal scrutiny of social media companies over their impact on young users. Earlier this year, Meta and YouTube suffered setbacks in separate cases involving allegations that their platforms were designed in ways that contributed to harmful use patterns among children and teenagers.
In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube liable in a lawsuit brought by a young woman who alleged social media addiction worsened her mental health struggles. The jury awarded approximately $6 million in damages, according to The Verge.
Meta also faced a separate legal challenge in New Mexico, where a jury found the company had violated state law in a case centered on child safety and mental health concerns.
School districts, individuals, municipalities and state attorneys general have filed thousands of lawsuits alleging that features such as infinite scrolling, autoplay functions and recommendation algorithms encourage excessive use and contribute to anxiety, depression, self-harm and other mental health issues among young people, according to The Wall Street Journal.
While the Breathitt County case has now been resolved, the broader litigation involving social media companies and youth mental health claims remains active in federal and state courts across the United States. The Verge reported that thousands of related cases are still pending.
