Meta Settles Social Media Addiction Lawsuit With US School District

Meta has reached a settlement with a school district in the United States that accused social media companies of contributing to a growing mental health crisis among students.

The case was filed by the Breathitt County School District, which alleged that platforms owned by Meta and other tech firms were intentionally designed to be addictive, negatively affecting students’ mental health and wellbeing.

The district had sought about $60 million in damages to help address issues linked to excessive social media use, including anxiety, depression and self-harm among students.

The lawsuit was expected to become the first major trial aimed at forcing social media companies to cover the costs of dealing with the impact of their platforms on schools and young people.

The Kentucky-based school district had already reached separate settlements last week with TikTok, Snap Inc. and YouTube.

Confirming the development, a spokesperson for Meta said the matter had been resolved amicably, allowing the company to avoid defending itself in court during the planned trial.

The settlement terms were not disclosed.

The case had been selected as a test case for more than 1,000 school districts across the US pursuing similar claims against social media companies.

The school district argued that social media platforms were deliberately engineered to maximise user attention and engagement, leading to harmful effects on young users.

The district also sought changes to the allegedly addictive features built into the platforms.

Although Meta settled this particular case, the company still faces other lawsuits linked to social media addiction and youth mental health concerns.

Earlier this year, Meta and Google lost a separate lawsuit brought by a young woman who accused the companies of contributing to her childhood addiction to social media platforms. A jury later awarded her millions of dollars in damages.

Meta said it remains focused on improving safety tools for teenagers through features such as Instagram Teen Accounts, which were introduced to help protect younger users online.

However, critics and researchers continue to question whether the tools go far enough in shielding teenagers from harmful content and addictive platform features.