Teenager drops social media addiction lawsuit against Meta

Image source, Reuters Image caption, Teens and parents have increasingly claimed ill-effects of social media use.

A Florida teenager who sued Meta claiming that he was addicted to and harmed by his use of platforms, such as Instagram, has dropped his case.

The 15-year-old plaintiff, known by the initials R.K.C., had in recent weeks settled the same claims against TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube, all of which have been accused in a large lawsuit of creating addictive platforms harmful to children.

R.K.C.'s claims were to go before a Los Angeles jury next week as part of court proceedings that have seen Meta and YouTube lose once already .

A Meta spokeswoman told the BBC: "The claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits."

Lawyers for R.K.C., Emily Jeffcott and Rahul Ravipudi, told the BBC that the young plaintiff "came into this process wanting to hold social media companies accountable and push for changes to protect young people like himself".

The lawyers noted concerns about a jury trial stretching on for weeks and said R.K.C. was "ready to close this chapter and focus on his recovery and engage in therapy as he aspires to have a normal life".

The Meta spokeswoman said he received no payment for dropping his claims.

R.K.C. had claimed that common social media features such as 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.

He argued it caused him anxiety and sleep deprivation, among other issues.

Meta and YouTube faced similar accusations from a young woman during the initial trial.

A jury ultimately found them liable for harming her mental health and were told to pay her $6mn (£4.4mn) in damages.

It was the first time that social media platforms had been held liable for their effects on users.

Both companies have now appealed that verdict.

The Los Angeles Superior Court is overseeing hundreds of lawsuits making similar claims of addiction and harm against social media companies. A small number of cases have been selected to go to trial.

The next one is set to begin in October, according to court records.

Across the US, there are thousands of lawsuits accusing Meta and other major social media platforms of harming young children.

In May, Meta settled for an undisclosed amount with a school district that had sued it for negatively impacting students, so much so that schools incurred costs related to student welfare. The school district had sought $60m in damages.

That settlement came not long after a New Mexico judge told Meta to pay $375m for misleading users on the safety of its platforms for children.