Meta Settles With Teen Plaintiff Mid-Trial; Case Proceeds Against Snap Only

Meta Platforms settled with an 18-year-old plaintiff who alleged Instagram and Facebook were designed to be addictive, causing mental health problems and disordered eating, the plaintiff's attorneys said Friday. The settlement with K.D.B. came after jury selection began Wednesday in Los Angeles state court and leaves Snap Inc. as the sole remaining defendant. Meta had already settled days earlier with S.J., a 16-year-old from Illinois. Both plaintiffs had previously settled with TikTok and YouTube. The case was selected from thousands of pending suits as a test case, meaning the jury's verdict could shape how companies and plaintiffs resolve similar claims. The plaintiffs said they began using YouTube as early as age 3 and other platforms around age 9, citing features such as autoplay and infinite scroll. In the first case to reach trial, which ended in March, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent and awarded a young woman $6 million in damages. In August, Meta struck settlements worth up to $18 billion with nearly every state and U.S. territory over harms to teens.