{"id":748,"date":"2026-07-22T22:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=748"},"modified":"2026-07-22T22:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T22:14:22","slug":"teen-plaintiff-suing-meta-over-mental-health-harms-drops-his-claims-against-company-days-before-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=748","title":{"rendered":"Teen Plaintiff Suing Meta Over Mental Health Harms Drops His Claims Against Company Days Before Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>By Diana Novak Jones<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>July 22 (Reuters) &#8211; A Florida teen\u00a0dropped his lawsuit on Wednesday \u2060against \u2060Meta Platforms, canceling a Los Angeles trial \u2060over claims the social media company&#8217;s apps caused his depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=746\">US FDA Says It Is Investigating Another Cyclosporiasis Outbreak<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The trial, which had been \u200bslated to begin on Monday, was expected to be the second trial in thousands of lawsuits that have been consolidated in California state court \u200cover claims social media companies designed their \u200cplatforms to be addictive to children, spurring a youth mental health crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The lawsuit, brought by a 15-year-old boy known as R.K.C. who started \u2060using social media \u2060when he was 8, originally named four defendants: Google&#8217;s YouTube, Meta&#8217;s Instagram, Snap Inc&#8217;s \u200bSnapchat and ByteDance&#8217;s TikTok, but YouTube and TikTok settled in June. The terms of those settlements were confidential.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A source close to the case confirmed on Wednesday that Snap had also settled with R.K.C.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;In light of the overall successful result of the litigation and his concerns about enduring a grueling weeks-long trial, \u200bhe has elected to withdraw his claims against Meta,&#8221; attorneys for R.K.C. said in a statement. &#8220;He\u2019s ready to close this \u2060chapter \u2060and focus on his recovery and \u2060engage in therapy as \u200bhe aspires to have a normal life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A spokesperson for Meta said in a statement R.K.C. had dropped the claims against \u200bthe company without receiving any payment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;The \u2060claims never held up, and this outcome makes clear that we will not back away from defending ourselves against baseless lawsuits,&#8221; the company said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>THOUSANDS OF CASES<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>More than 3,300 lawsuits alleging social media platforms are addictive and harmful to young users are pending in California state court. R.K.C.&#8217;s case is among a small group selected as bellwethers. Attorneys often use bellwether verdicts to gauge how juries may view similar claims, helping them \u2060assess the potential value of remaining cases and guide settlement negotiations.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=744\">Welcome to Your Friendly 21st-Century Panopticon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Another 2,600 cases making similar claims, brought \u2060by individuals, school districts, municipalities and states, are pending in California federal court. In addition, nearly every state attorney general has sued social media companies in their own state courts. The lawsuits accuse the companies of misrepresenting the safety of their platforms for young users and of designing them to addict children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The companies have denied the allegations and say they take extensive steps to keep teens and young users safe on their platforms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The first trial in California state court, which ended in March, was in the case of a woman who said she became addicted to social media platforms at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design. TikTok and Snap settled that case\u00a0before trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Meta and Google went to trial, \u2060and a jury ultimately found the companies negligent, ordering Meta to pay $4.2 million in damages and Google to pay $1.8 million. In June, the judge rejected the companies\u2019 bid to set aside that verdict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The first trial in federal court had been set to begin in June in a lawsuit brought by a Kentucky school district against Meta, Snap, TikTok and \u200bYouTube. All of the companies\u00a0settled before trial, paying the district a combined $27 million.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; \u200bEditing by Chris Reese, Alexia Garamfalvi, Rod Nickel and Chizu Nomiyama)<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=742\">US Senate Panel Approves Bill to Crack Down on Chinese Vehicles<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><b>Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters<\/b>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US News is a recognized leader in college, grad school, hospital, mutual fund, and car rankings. Track elected officials, research health conditions, and find news you can use in politics, business, health, and education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[74,8,83,60],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news","tag-california","tag-sign-in-to-manage-your-newsletters","tag-social-media","tag-united-states"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Teen Plaintiff Suing Meta Over Mental Health Harms Drops His Claims Against Company Days Before Trial - Office Moving America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/officemovingamerica.com\/?p=748\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teen Plaintiff Suing Meta Over Mental Health Harms Drops His Claims Against Company Days Before Trial - Office Moving America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"US News is a recognized leader in college, grad school, hospital, mutual fund, and car rankings. 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