Google Settles Social Media Harm Lawsuit with Minor

Following a similar lawsuit earlier this year, Google has settled with a minor known as "R.K.C." who claimed that social media platforms harmed them, Reuters reported. Terms of the settlement were confidential, the lawyers said yesterday. The same plaintiff also sued Meta, Snap and TikTok, with those trials set to proceed next month. YouTube has thousands of similar lawsuits pending, so this second case represents a test run for the many to follow.

"Our ⁠focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise," a Google spokesperson told Reuters in a statement, adding that the case was amicably resolved.

The first trial was brought by a 20-year-old woman known as "K.G.M.," who also claimed harm due to the addictive nature of social media. That person won their trial and was awarded $6 million in damages, with $4.2 million coming from Meta and $1.8 million from Google. YouTube vowed to launch an appeal for that case, saying it "responsibly built a streaming platform, not a social media site."

More than 3,300 lawsuits involving social media addiction are pending in California state courts, and another 2,600 were brought by people, school districts, municipalities and states in California federal court. That's just one state (albeit the biggest one), but it's easy to see the size of the problem for YouTube and other platforms if each plaintiff receives a multi-million-dollar award. Social media platforms have recently settled (or are facing) lawsuits in Kentucky, New York City and numerous other US jurisdictions.

Meta and other platforms have disputed the idea that their platforms are addictive. However, a lawyer in the first case involving K.G.M. said the companies' own communications refute those claims. "This is the first time in history a jury has heard testimony by executives and seen internal documents that we believe prove these companies chose profits over children," Joseph VanZandt said back in March.