_updates.jpg)
A Florida teen has accused Google's YouTube of causing depression, anxiety and sleep loss in children in the latest legal crisis the platform faced.
YouTube has settled the social media addiction case brought by a 15-year-old, accusing social media platforms of fuelling a mental health crisis among children.
The teenager, who used the initials R.K.C. in court documents, alleged that YouTube and other social media firms had designed their platforms to be addictive.
Google shares Florida lawsuit update
Addressing the settlement, Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement, "This matter has been amicably resolved and our forces remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise."
R.K.C. is also taking legal actions against Instagram's parent company, Meta, TikTok, and Snap Inc. in a trial currently set to kick off on July 27 in Los Angeles.
The teen's allegations will be the second trial in a series being overseen by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl in order to resolve more than 1,000 similar cases in California.
K.G.M. case against YouTube
Earlier this year, the first trial occurred where a 20-year-old California woman, identified as K.G.M., accused Meta and YouTube of designing platforms to be addictive to young users.
She had also sued Snap and TikTok, but both platforms settled before trial for an undisclosed sum.
A jury ultimately awarded K.G.M. $6 million, the first time a court had found that Meta and YouTube were liable for their platforms' mental health effects on certain users.
The same week, a jury in New Mexico told Meta to pay $375 million for misleading users over the safety of its platforms for children.
R.K.C. claims against YouTube
According to court documents, R.K.C. has made similar accusations against YouTube.
He claims that features like infinite scroll and autoplay, both of which continuously and automatically show users new content on a platform, drove compulsive use that became a type of addiction.
It caused him anxiety and sleep deprivation, among other issues.
"As jurors saw in the first bellwether trial, leadership at these social media companies have been strategising for years to hook children early and maximise their usage," said R.K.C.'s attorneys John Morgan and Emily Jeffcott in a statement.
Talking to the BBC, Google said YouTube was built "responsibly" with families to grant young users a safe online place.
The platform in 2015 launched YouTube Kids, a version designed and curated for children.
Social media addiction and legal troubles
Last month, the company also finalised another case that was heading to trial, in which a Kentucky school district accused YouTube, Meta, Snap and TikTok of creating a mental health crisis for its students.
All of the companies ultimately decided to settle instead of going to trial.
The school district demanded the companies change their addictive features and also pay for the costs schools contracted in helping children deal with things like anxiety, depression and even self-harm allegedly driven by their social media use.
Notably, the trial was due to begin in mid-June in federal court in Oakland, California, as part of a multi-district litigation (MDL) that includes thousands of similar cases and claims.
Another trial in the MDL brought by US states against Meta is set to proceed in the same court starting in August.
