Settlement terms kept confidential

Plaintiffs' attorneys vow to hold companies accountable for children's safety

Second US bellwether trial set to begin late next month

Meta, Snap and TikTok remain defendants

A YouTube sign near the company's headquarters in San Bruno, California, in March last year. [AP]
A YouTube sign near the company's headquarters in San Bruno, California, in March last year. [AP]

Google's video service YouTube has reached a pretrial settlement with the plaintiff in a US lawsuit over social media addiction among minors.

Attorneys representing the minor plaintiff, known by the initials R.K.C., announced Monday that they had reached a pretrial agreement with Google. The specific terms, they said, would remain confidential.

R.K.C. is a 16-year-old boy from Florida who began using social media at age 8 and subsequently became addicted, suffering from sleep deprivation, depression and anxiety.

In announcing the settlement, the plaintiff's legal team said YouTube's decision to resolve the case before a jury trial "speaks for itself," adding that they would continue fighting on behalf of all those harmed by social media addiction "to hold these companies accountable in a court of law and force them to prioritize the safety of young users over profits."

A Google spokesperson confirmed the resolution in a statement, saying the company is "focused on building age-appropriate products and parental control features."

The case was the second bellwether trial selected from among thousands of lawsuits filed across the United States against social media companies. With Google settling, the trial set to begin July 27 is now expected to proceed against Meta, Snap and TikTok.

In a string of lawsuits against major technology companies that operate social media platforms, defendants have repeatedly chosen to settle rather than go to trial.

In the first bellwether trial, held in a Los Angeles court, Snap and TikTok settled with the plaintiff before proceedings began. Meta and Google, which went to trial, received jury verdicts ordering them to pay $4.2 million and $1.8 million respectively, including punitive damages.

In a separate lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, all defendants agreed to pay the district a combined $27 million.

Meta also received a verdict ordering it to pay $375 million in a lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico.


yckim6452@heraldcorp.com