Meta Settles With Teen Plaintiff in Social Media Addiction Test Case; Trial to Proceed Against Snap

Meta Platforms has settled with an 18-year-old Mississippi woman identified as K.D.B., who accused it of designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive and causing mental health problems and disordered eating, her attorneys said on Friday. The settlement came after jury selection began Wednesday in Los Angeles state court for a trial meant to test the claims of K.D.B. and a 16-year-old Illinois girl, S.J., against Meta and Snap Inc., parent of Snapchat. Meta had settled with S.J. days earlier, so the trial is expected to proceed against Snap only. K.D.B.'s attorney, Emily Jeffcott, said in a statement that her team remains committed to improving safety for kids on social media and holding tech companies accountable, and was pleased with a just resolution. The case is the second in Los Angeles state court over claims by young people who say Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube owner Alphabet designed their platforms to encourage compulsive use. Both plaintiffs had earlier settled with TikTok and YouTube. They say they began using YouTube as early as age 3 and the other platforms around age 9. The case was chosen from thousands of pending lawsuits as a test case, so a verdict could influence how companies and plaintiffs resolve similar claims.

The New York Times, the left-leaning outlet, leads with Meta settling and avoiding trial. It places the case within the wider litigation as the fourth of nine bellwether personal injury lawsuits and says it was set for trial next week. Its excerpt names the plaintiff's age and state but not S.J., Snap or the attorney's statement. The New York Post, on the right, frames its headline around the teen's claims of depression and eating disorders. It carries the fuller wire account: the Jeffcott quote, S.J.'s earlier settlement, the Snap-only trial and the ages at which the plaintiffs began using the platforms. Both sides report Meta's settlement with the 18-year-old Mississippi plaintiff and the case's test-case role. They differ on timing and counting: the Times says trial was next week and calls the case the fourth of nine bellwethers, while the Post text says jury selection began Wednesday and calls it the second Los Angeles trial. Independent outlet Investing.com carried the same Reuters text as the Post.