By Diana Novak Jones
May 29 (Reuters) – A Kentucky school district obtained about $27 million in settlements from social media companies over allegations they fueled a student mental health crisis, with Meta Platforms paying the largest amount: $9 million, according to records seen by Reuters on Friday that reveal the financial terms of the deal for the first time.
Meta settled the case brought by the Breathitt County School District on May 21, a few weeks before a trial planned for June, following earlier settlements between co-defendants Snap Inc, YouTube parent company Alphabet, and TikTok parent company ByteDance. The terms of the agreements had not been disclosed in court.
Alphabet paid $2.01 million to settle the case; Snap paid $8 million and ByteDance paid $8 million, according to copies of settlement agreements Reuters obtained from the school district through a public records request.
The companies have denied the allegations and say they are taking extensive measures to keep teen and young users safe on their platforms.
When the settlements were announced, Meta, Snap and YouTube said they had resolved the claims amicably. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said after the announcement that they are now focused on pursuing similar lawsuits filed by 1,200 other school districts.
BENCHMARK CASE FOR SCHOOL DISTRICTS
The Breathitt school district, which is located in a rural Appalachian county, accused the companies of designing their platforms to keep young users hooked, creating anxiety, depression and self-harm among students and leaving schools to deal with the consequences.
The school district was seeking more than $60 million to cover the costs of countering the impact of social media on students’ mental health and to fund a 15-year mental health program to reduce the problem. It had also sought a court order requiring the companies to modify their platforms to reduce addictive features.
Breathitt’s case was scheduled to be the first among school district cases, which have been consolidated in federal court in California, to go to trial. It had been closely watched as a bellwether or test case for the school districts’ claims in the sprawling litigation. Judges and attorneys often use breakthrough verdicts to assess the potential value of remaining claims and guide settlement talks.
Breathitt is a small district serving about 1,600 students in six schools, according to federal data, but the litigation also includes much larger districts. Tucson Unified School District in Arizona, a district of about 40,000 students whose case is scheduled to go to trial in February, is seeking more than $1.1 billion to fund a 15-year mental health program, plus more than $100 million in compensation for time teachers and staff have spent managing the impact of social media. The Los Angeles Unified School District and the New York City public school system, which together serve more than 1.2 million students, have also sued.