YouTube settles social media addiction lawsuit with Florida teenager

Google’s YouTube has settled a high-profile social media addiction lawsuit brought by a 15-year-old Florida teenager, marking the latest legal setback for tech giants accused of fuelling a youth mental health crisis.

The plaintiff, identified in court documents as R.K.C., alleged that YouTube intentionally designed features like “infinite scroll” and “autoplay” to hook young users, driving compulsive behaviour that resulted in severe anxiety and sleep deprivation.

“This matter has been amicably resolved and our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls,” Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement. Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

While YouTube has extracted itself from the upcoming trial, R.K.C.’s legal battle is far from over. The teenager is still suing Meta (parent company of Instagram), TikTok, and Snap Inc., with that trial scheduled to begin on July 27 in Los Angeles.

The case is part of a massive wave of litigation, representing the second in a series of “bellwether” trials overseen by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl to resolve more than 1,000 similar complaints in California.

It follows a landmark verdict earlier this year where a jury awarded $6 million to a 20-year-old woman, finding Meta and YouTube liable for the mental health impacts of their platforms.

In their own statement, R.K.C.’s attorneys, John Morgan and Emily Jeffcott, targeted big tech leadership: “As jurors saw in the first bellwether trial, leadership at these social media companies has been strategising for years to hook children early and maximise their usage.”

Google defended its track record, stating it has spent over a decade building YouTube responsibly and pointing to the 2015 launch of its curated YouTube Kids platform.

Nevertheless, the pressure on tech firms is mounting. Just last month, YouTube, Meta, Snap, and TikTok collectively settled a separate federal lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district, which sought damages for the high costs schools incur treating student anxiety, depression and self-harm linked to social media use.