Meta Platforms settled with a teen plaintiff on Friday who accused the company of designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive, causing mental health problems and disordered eating. The settlement came after jury selection began for a trial involving two teens against Meta and Snap Inc. Meta had already settled with the other plaintiff, S.J., leaving the trial to proceed against Snap only.
The case serves as a test trial in Los Angeles state court. A jury verdict could influence how social media companies and plaintiffs resolve thousands of similar pending lawsuits. The plaintiffs, identified as S.J., 16, from Illinois, and K.D.B., 18, from Mississippi, claim they developed compulsive habits from platform features such as autoplay and infinite scroll after starting to use YouTube as early as age 3 and other platforms around age 9. Both teens had previously settled with TikTok and YouTube.
Meta and Snap have rejected claims their platforms were designed to addict young people. The companies say they have taken steps to make apps safe places for youth expression.
In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in a separate trial and awarded a young woman 6 million dollars in damages. In August, Meta reached settlements worth up to 18 billion dollars with nearly every state and U.S. territory over alleged harm to teens. Earlier this month, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay a 25 billion dollar penalty after a jury found the company misled Facebook users about data privacy and hate speech handling. Meta said it will appeal.