Meta Platforms has reached a settlement with a teenage plaintiff who alleged that Instagram and Facebook were designed to be addictive, contributing to her mental health struggles and disordered eating, the plaintiff’s attorneys said Friday.
The agreement was reached after jury selection began Wednesday for a trial involving claims by two teenagers, identified as S.J. and K.D.B., against Meta and Snap, the parent company of Snapchat.
Meta settled with S.J. several days before the trial began. Friday’s settlement with K.D.B. means the case is now expected to proceed only against Snap.
“We remain committed to improving safety for kids on social media apps and holding tech companies accountable, and we are pleased to have brought this matter to a just resolution on behalf of our client,” K.D.B.’s attorney, Emily Jeffcott, said in a statement.
The trial is the second in Los Angeles state court involving young people who claim they became addicted to social media after Meta, Snap, TikTok and Alphabet’s YouTube designed their platforms to promote compulsive use.
S.J. and K.D.B. had previously reached settlements with TikTok and YouTube.
The case was chosen as a test case from thousands of pending lawsuits, meaning a jury verdict could influence how similar claims are resolved by the companies and plaintiffs.
S.J., a 16-year-old from Illinois, and K.D.B., an 18-year-old from Mississippi, said they began using YouTube as early as age 3 and started using the other platforms at about age 9. They developed compulsive habits that they attribute to features including autoplay and infinite scrolling.
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The companies have denied designing their platforms to addict young users. They also say they have taken steps to make their apps safe spaces where young people can express themselves.
Social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts from individuals, school districts, municipalities and other government entities. The lawsuits allege that the companies knowingly sought to addict children to their platforms, contributing to a youth mental health crisis involving anxiety, depression and suicide.
In the first case of its kind to reach trial, a Los Angeles jury in March found Meta and YouTube negligent and awarded a young woman $6 million in damages.
The next two teenagers whose cases were selected for trial either settled with the companies or withdrew their claims.
The first school district selected for trial also settled with all of the companies.
In August, Meta reached settlements worth as much as $18 billion with nearly every U.S. state and territory to resolve lawsuits filed by attorneys general over the platforms’ alleged harm to teenagers. The company also agreed to change how Instagram and Facebook operate for teen users.
Earlier this month, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay a $25 billion penalty after a jury found that the company misled Facebook users about the privacy of their data and its handling of hate speech.
Meta has said it will appeal.
