Several major social media companies have agreed to pay approximately $27 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a school district in Kentucky that accused their platforms of contributing to a student mental health crisis.
Court documents reviewed by AFP show that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will pay $9 million under the settlement. Snap Inc., which owns Snapchat, and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, will each contribute $8 million.
Meanwhile, Google will pay about $2 million in cash and provide training, software licences and support services valued at roughly $900,000.
The lawsuit was filed by the Breathitt County School District, a rural district in eastern Kentucky. The case had been selected as a test case among more than 1,200 similar lawsuits filed by school districts across the United States.
The district sought more than $60 million to fund a 15-year mental health programme and cover costs associated with addressing issues it linked to social media use, including sleep disruption, emotional distress and student conflicts.
The case was scheduled to go to trial later this month in Oakland, California, before the companies agreed to settle. As part of its settlement package, Google will provide educational support services, including an on-site professional development coach, a three-year licence for its AI education software, a four-year social-emotional learning programme and technical support for Google Workspace tools.
None of the companies admitted wrongdoing as part of the agreements. Legal observers say the settlements could increase pressure on the companies to resolve the hundreds of similar cases still pending before Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the federal judge overseeing the broader litigation.
The settlements come amid growing legal scrutiny of social media platforms. In March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable in a case involving claims that Instagram and YouTube were designed in ways that contributed to addictive use, a decision that could influence future lawsuits involving social media and mental health.