Meta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube settle Kentucky school district lawsuit for $27 million
Four major social media companies have agreed to pay $27 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a Kentucky school district alleging their platforms were designed to be addictive.Summary
Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube have agreed to pay a combined $27 million to settle a lawsuit filed by Breathitt County School District in Kentucky. The lawsuit alleged that the platforms were intentionally designed to be addictive and contributed to a teen mental health crisis. Meta will pay $9 million, while Snap and TikTok will each pay $8 million, and YouTube will contribute slightly more than $2 million. In addition to the financial settlement, YouTube has agreed to provide training programs to help teachers use its video platform in classrooms. The settlement amount represents about 8% of the district's annual budget. The case was reportedly selected as a test case among over 1,000 U.S. school districts pursuing similar claims. The settlement comes amid increasing legal scrutiny of social media platforms and their impact on young users. Earlier this year, Meta and YouTube lost a lawsuit in Los Angeles brought by a 20-year-old woman who claimed the companies were responsible for her childhood addiction to social media. The United Nations has urged governments and technology companies to do more to protect children online, warning that simply blocking children from social media is not an effective long-term solution. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said online harms to kids' safety, privacy and wellbeing result from design choices and business practices that undermine safety, including addictive design features.
(Source：Connected To India)