Google's YouTube settles case over social media harm to children, plaintiff's lawyers say

YouTube has settled a lawsuit with a minor who claimed the platform caused mental health harms, with the terms of the settlement remaining confidential.

Google's YouTube has ​settled with a minor who claimed ‌the ​platform caused mental health harms, the plaintiff’s lawyers said, ahead of a second California trial over claims the design ‌of social media sites has fueled a youth mental health crisis. The terms of the settlement of the state court lawsuit were confidential, the lawyers said on Tuesday. Google ‌spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement that the lawsuit had been amicably ‌resolved and "our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise.”

The lawsuit brought by the plaintiff, known as R.K.C., was selected as the second trial testing claims ⁠of individuals ​who say they were ⁠harmed by the design of social media platforms like Meta's Instagram, Snap Inc's Snapchat and ByteDance's TikTok. ⁠The trial is slated to go ahead against Meta, Snap and TikTok in July. More ​than 3,300 lawsuits involving addiction claims against social media companies are pending in ⁠California state court. Another 2,600 cases brought by individuals, school districts, municipalities and states are pending in ⁠California ​federal court. The first trial, which ended in March, was in the case of a woman who said she became addicted to Google's YouTube and Meta's Instagram ⁠at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design. A jury found the companies ⁠negligent and ordered Meta ⁠to pay $4.2 million in damages and Google to pay $1.8 million. Earlier this month, the judge rejected the companies’ bid to ‌set aside ‌that verdict.