Meta Settles First School District Lawsuit Over Social Media Harms

Meta reached a settlement Thursday with the Breathitt County School District in Kentucky over claims that social media use caused mental health and learning problems among students. The case was one of more than 1,200 similar lawsuits filed by school districts across the United States.

It had been selected as a bellwether trial scheduled to begin next month in federal court in Oakland, California.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The district had sought more than $60 million to fund a 15-year program aimed at addressing mental health and learning issues it attributed to social media. Meta settled after the other defendants in the case—TikTok, Snap, and YouTube—reached their own agreements earlier in the week. The settlement applies only to Breathitt County and does not resolve the remaining lawsuits.

The settlement follows two recent jury verdicts against Meta and YouTube. In March, a Los Angeles jury found the companies liable for designing addictive features and awarded about $6 million to a plaintiff identified as KGM. A separate jury in New Mexico determined that Meta violated state law by harming children's mental health and safety.

Plaintiffs' attorneys stated that their focus remains on pursuing justice for the remaining 1,200 school districts that have filed cases.