YouTube settles teen lawsuit over alleged addictive design features: Report

Google’s YouTube has settled a lawsuit brought by a Florida teenager who alleged the platform’s design contributed to compulsive use and harmed his mental health, BBC reported Wednesday.

The case was filed by a 15-year-old identified in court documents as R.K.C., who claimed YouTube and other social media companies deliberately designed features such as infinite scroll and autoplay to keep users engaged for longer periods, leading to anxiety, sleep disruption and other health impacts.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. In a statement to the BBC, a Google spokesperson said the company had resolved the matter and remained focused on building “age-appropriate products and parental controls.”

The teenager is also pursuing separate claims against Instagram parent Meta, TikTok and Snap Inc., with a trial scheduled for July in Los Angeles as part of broader multidistrict litigation involving more than 1,000 similar cases.

The lawsuits accuse major social media companies of contributing to a youth mental health crisis through addictive platform design. The companies have denied wrongdoing and previously pointed to safety tools and youth-focused products, including YouTube Kids.