Google’s YouTube and Snap reached agreements to settle the first lawsuit headed to trial over claims that addiction to top social media platforms has disrupted learning and pushed public schools to spend massive sums fighting a mental health crisis, according to court filings.
TikTok and Meta Platforms were also sued by the rural Kentucky school district that brought the case, which is set to go to trial on June 12 in federal court in Oakland, California.
The trial will serve as a test case for more than 1,200 similar lawsuits nationwide in which school districts allege that the biggest social media companies have harmed students so badly that it is undermining the education system.
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The spate of lawsuits could open the tech companies to a “collective theoretical liability of almost US$400 billion,” according to an estimate from Bloomberg Intelligence. The terms of the settlements were not disclosed in Friday’s filings.
“For more than a decade, we’ve built YouTube responsibly – working with teachers, administrators, and parents’ groups to give students safer, more helpful experiences online,” YouTube said in a statement.
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“This matter has been amicably resolved and our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise.”
