YouTube has reached a confidential agreement with a Florida teenager who accused the video-sharing service of using features that encourage children to spend excessive amounts of time online.
The claimant, identified in court documents as R.K.C., is 15 years old and alleged that years of social media use contributed to anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and compulsive behaviour. The teenager reportedly began using online platforms at the age of eight.
“This matter has been amicably resolved and our focus remains on building age-appropriate products and parental controls that deliver on that promise,” Google spokesman José Castañeda said in a statement to the BBC.
The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. However, the settlement only removes Google-owned YouTube from the case. Legal action against Instagram owner Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat parent Snap is still expected to proceed, with a trial currently scheduled to begin on 27 July.
The lawsuit is among a growing number of cases in the United States that accuse technology companies of designing services to hold the attention of younger users. Families, schools, and public authorities have argued that features such as automatic playback, personalised recommendations, frequent notifications, and endlessly refreshing feeds can encourage unhealthy patterns of use.
R.K.C.’s lawyers, John Morgan and Emily Jeffcott, said technology executives had been aware of the risks associated with these systems.
“As jurors saw in the first bellwether trial, leadership at these social media companies have been strategizing for years to hook children early and maximize their usage,” they said.
The Florida dispute follows a separate case brought by a California woman identified as K.G.M., who claimed that using YouTube and Instagram during childhood damaged her mental health. Earlier this year, a jury awarded her $6 million.
Meta was ordered to pay $4.2 million, while Google was assigned $1.8 million. TikTok and Snap settled their parts of the case before the trial began.
The verdict was closely watched because it could affect hundreds of similar claims against social media businesses. Google and Meta have denied that their products caused the alleged harm and have challenged the ruling. Google maintains that it has spent more than a decade developing safeguards and tools intended to give younger users a safer online experience.