Meta Settles Social Media Addiction Lawsuit with Kentucky's Breathitt School District

Meta has finalised a settlement with the Breathitt School District in Kentucky, pre-empting the first trial aiming to compel social media companies to cover the financial burden of addressing alleged mental health issues among students. The terms of the agreement remain undisclosed.

This resolution with Meta follows last week's settlements between the Breathitt School District and three other defendants: TikTok, Snap Inc., and Google's YouTube. The Kentucky district's case was selected as a test for over a thousand US school districts pursuing similar claims against social media corporations.

The district had sought £44.7m in damages and an abatement programme, alleging that companies intentionally engineered their platforms to foster addiction, leading to harms such as anxiety, depression, and self-harm among young users. The trial was scheduled to commence in mid-June within a federal court in Oakland, California.

A spokesperson for Meta stated on Thursday that the company's