Published
March 9, 2026
Updated
August 27, 2026
Meta agreed on August 26, 2026 to pay states up to $17.1 billion over Facebook and Instagram, and headlines have called it a social media addiction settlement. It is one — but it pays state governments, and there is no claim form on it. This page separates what has actually settled from what a family can still file, and where the individual injury cases stand.
Current Status
There is no social media addiction settlement that a family can file a claim on. The largest settlement in this litigation — Meta’s agreement of August 26, 2026 to pay up to $17.1 billion — was reached with state attorneys general, so the money is paid to state governments over ten years. It created no consumer fund, no settlement administrator, no claim form and no deadline, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has not yet entered the consent judgment.What families have instead is the individual injury track, and it is open. Thousands of personal-injury cases brought on behalf of minors are coordinated in the federal MDL 3047 and California’s JCCP 5255. The state settlement does not release any of them. Intake firms are still reviewing new cases, the first jury verdict in this litigation came in March 2026, and the next personal-injury bellwether trial in Los Angeles is scheduled for October 2026. Because these are individual lawsuits rather than a class action, eligibility runs through a law firm that reviews the specific facts — there is no form to fill in and wait on.
Status (August 27, 2026)
Injury Cases Open — No Consumer Claim Form
individual personal-injury claims coordinated in MDL 3047 and JCCP 5255; intake firms are accepting new cases
Largest Settlement to Date
Meta — up to $17.1 billion
announced August 26, 2026 with 47 states, D.C. and three territories; paid to state governments over 10 years, awaiting court approval
Can Families Claim That Money?
No — there is no claim form
a government enforcement settlement, not a class action; it does not release any family’s injury claim
Estimated Payout
Varies — case by case
no fixed amount; these are individual injury cases with no single fund, and the one jury award to date was $6 million in a single plaintiff’s case, now on appeal
Deadline
No claim deadline — but a filing deadline applies
state statutes of limitation govern how long a family has to file; they vary by state and by the type of harm
Can I Still File a Social Media Addiction Claim for My Child?
Yes. Attorneys are still accepting new cases. If your child was under 18 during a period of heavy social media use and developed serious mental health problems — such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, self-harm, or suicidal thoughts — you may qualify to file an individual injury claim. There is no upfront cost. Attorneys handle these cases on a contingency basis, meaning they only get paid if you receive money.One point worth being clear about, because the August 2026 headlines have blurred it: filing here does not mean claiming a share of Meta’s $17.1 billion. That money is not available to families. Filing means bringing your own injury case into MDL 3047 or JCCP 5255, where it is evaluated on its own facts. See our breakdown of the state settlement for why the two are separate.
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What Is Happening Right Now? (2026 Update)
The social media addiction lawsuits are in the most significant phase yet. Here is what has happened in the last few months:In January 2026, the first-ever social media addiction bellwether trial began in Los Angeles Superior Court. The case involves a 19-year-old woman identified as K.G.M. who alleges that prolonged use of Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat during her adolescence caused severe depression and suicidal thoughts. The trial ran for about two months in early 2026.
Before the trial even started, two defendants settled. Snapchat (Snap Inc.) settled on January 20, 2026, and TikTok (ByteDance) settled on January 27, 2026. The settlement amounts were not disclosed, and neither company admitted wrongdoing. Both were removed from the trial.
During the trial, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in February 2026 and was questioned about whether Instagram was deliberately designed to be addictive to children. He testified that Meta no longer sets goals to maximize screen time and that research does not conclusively prove social media causes mental health harm. The plaintiffs' attorneys challenged this position with internal company documents and expert testimony.
On March 25, 2026, the jury returned a verdict, finding Meta and YouTube negligent and awarding the plaintiff $6 million — $3 million in compensatory and $3 million in punitive damages — the first jury verdict in a social media addiction case. In early June 2026, Judge Carolyn Kuhl denied Meta's and Google's post-trial motions to overturn the verdict or grant a new trial, leaving the jury's findings and the award intact. Meta filed a notice of appeal on or about July 7, 2026, and YouTube (Google) followed with its own notice of appeal on July 13, 2026, so both defendants are now appealing and the verdict is not final. It remains a California state-court result in one plaintiff's case and does not bind the thousands of other pending cases. See our full breakdown of the March 2026 verdict for details.
The second California state-court bellwether never reached a jury. A JCCP 5255 case brought by a teenage plaintiff identified as R.K.C. had been set for trial on July 27, 2026 in Los Angeles. YouTube (Google) and TikTok settled out of it earlier, Snap Inc. reached a tentative settlement on July 20, and on July 22, 2026 the plaintiff dismissed the remaining claims against Meta, so the trial came off calendar. The next personal-injury bellwether in the California proceeding is now scheduled for October 2026. None of those settlements is an admission of wrongdoing, and their terms were not disclosed.
In the federal MDL, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had set the first two federal bellwether trials for mid-2026, both involving school-district claims. The first — brought by Breathitt County, Kentucky — settled for a combined $27 million in May 2026 before trial, and the next school-district bellwethers (Tucson Unified and Charleston County) are now set for February 2027. Individual personal injury trials are expected to follow. The JPML’s report dated August 3, 2026 put MDL 3047 at 3,137 pending cases.
The biggest development of all came from the same federal court, and it is the reason people are searching for a "social media addiction settlement" right now. A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general took Meta to trial in Oakland on August 18, 2026 in People of the State of California v. Meta Platforms, Inc., et al., No. 4:23-cv-05448 (N.D. Cal.), over claims that Instagram and Facebook were designed to addict and harm young users. Eight days later, on August 26, 2026, Meta settled: a proposed consent judgment covering 47 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, under which Meta commits about $12.1 billion to the states over ten years, with roughly $5 billion more owed only if Snap, TikTok and YouTube settle on comparable terms. It also imposes five years of product changes for users under 18 and appoints an independent auditor. Meta separately settled with Texas for about $1 billion the same day. Judge Gonzalez Rogers said she expected to approve the deal but had not entered it, and the agreement states that it is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing. Critically for anyone reading this page: that money goes to state governments, and there is no claim form on it. See the full breakdown of Meta’s $17.1 billion state settlement.
A separate, single-state enforcement trial in Nashville was resolved the same way. In State of Tennessee v. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Instagram, LLC — a civil enforcement action Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti first filed in October 2023 — jury selection began July 20, 2026 in the Chancery Court of Davidson County. The state alleged Meta designed Instagram features such as autoplay, Reels, notifications and disappearing content to keep teenagers compulsively engaged and misled the public about the platform’s safety. Meta denied the allegations. The August 26, 2026 multistate agreement also ended that trial, again without any finding of liability.
Two Parallel Tracks: JCCP 5255 (California State) and MDL 3047 (Federal)
Social media addiction cases are being heard in two coordinated proceedings at once, which is why the same facts can show up in different courtrooms. Understanding which track a case lives on helps explain why the K.G.M. bellwether ran in Los Angeles Superior Court while the next bellwethers run in federal court in Oakland.JCCP 5255 is California’s state-court coordinated proceeding, titled “Social Media Cases.” It consolidates personal-injury claims filed across California counties in front of one judge for pretrial work, then returns them to their home counties for trial. The K.G.M. bellwether was a JCCP 5255 case. A second JCCP bellwether — the R.K.C. case, involving a teenage plaintiff — is set for trial on July 27, 2026; YouTube (Google), TikTok, and — as of July 20, 2026 — Snap all reached confidential settlements ahead of that trial, leaving Meta as the sole remaining defendant.
MDL 3047 is the federal multidistrict litigation — “In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation” — pending in the Northern District of California before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. The MDL also houses the school-district claims on a separate track, and it is where the federal school-district bellwethers are being tried. After Breathitt County settled in May 2026, the next federal bellwethers (Tucson Unified and Charleston County) are set for early 2027.
Claims can be filed into either track depending on where the plaintiff lives and where the defendants have sufficient contacts. Families filing new claims today are typically routed through one of these two proceedings.
Which Social Media Companies Are Being Sued?
The lawsuits target the largest social media platforms used by children and teenagers:• Meta (Instagram and Facebook) — settled the state attorneys general’s enforcement claims for up to $17.1 billion on August 26, 2026 (that settlement pays states, not families). Still an active defendant in the individual injury and school-district cases, with no settlement of those.
• TikTok (ByteDance) — settled January 27, 2026 in the K.G.M. bellwether case (amount undisclosed). This settlement resolved the specific case at trial and does not necessarily cover all future claims against TikTok.
• Snapchat (Snap Inc.) — settled January 20, 2026 in the K.G.M. bellwether case (amount undisclosed). As with TikTok, this settlement applied to the case in question and does not necessarily cover all future claims against Snapchat.
• YouTube (Google / Alphabet) — still in active litigation. Settled out of the Breathitt County school case and the R.K.C. bellwether, but has no settlement with the states; Meta’s agreement offers the states an extra payment if YouTube reaches one.
• Discord — facing separate lawsuits over child safety
• Roblox — facing lawsuits over child exploitation and addictive design
Do I Qualify to File a Lawsuit?
You may qualify if your child was under 18 during a period of heavy social media use and developed any of the following conditions that you believe were caused or worsened by social media:• Suicide or suicide attempt
• Suicidal ideation (thoughts of suicide)
• Body dysmorphia
• Self-harm (cutting, burning, or other self-injury)
• Sexual abuse facilitated through a social media platform
• Eating disorder (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating)
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Drug overdose
The platforms covered include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.
To qualify for a claim, attorneys will expect a formal diagnosis or treatment for the injury resulting from the social media usage.
You do not need to already have a lawyer. The free evaluation will determine if your case qualifies and connect you with an experienced attorney if it does.
How Much Money Could I Get?
There is no fixed settlement amount because these are individual lawsuits, not a single class action with a set fund. The amount of compensation a claimant may receive is currently unknown and will depend on a number of factors, including the specifics of each individual case. The TikTok and Snapchat settlements in January 2026 did not disclose amounts. As more trials and settlements occur, more information about potential compensation will become available.How Do I File? What Does the Evaluation Ask?
The free evaluation is a short 11-question survey. It takes just a few minutes. Here is exactly what it will ask you so there are no surprises:Question 1 asks what harm you believe social media caused for your child. You select one from a dropdown list: Suicide / Suicide Attempt, Suicidal Ideation, Body Dysmorphia, Self Harm, Sexual Abuse, Eating Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Drug Overdose, or None of the Above.
Question 2 asks whether your child has received a diagnosis or treatment (Yes or No).
Question 3 asks which social media platform was primarily involved. You select one: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, or Other.
The remaining questions collect basic information like your child's age, when the social media use began, and your contact details so an attorney can follow up if you qualify.
After you complete the survey, if your answers indicate you may have a case, you will be contacted for a free consultation with an intake specialist to see if your child might qualify to file a social media addiction lawsuit. There is no cost for the evaluation or the consultation. Attorneys work on a contingency basis — they only get paid a percentage of what you recover. If you do not win, you owe nothing.
Why Are These Lawsuits Happening?
The lawsuits allege that social media companies deliberately designed their platforms to be addictive to children and teenagers, knowing the harm it would cause. Internal documents from Meta, TikTok, and other companies allegedly show that executives were aware their platforms were causing mental health harm to young users but chose to prioritize engagement and advertising revenue over safety.The platforms allegedly used features specifically designed to exploit developing adolescent brains, including infinite scrolling that makes it impossible to find a natural stopping point, algorithmic content feeds that serve increasingly extreme or harmful content to keep users engaged, notification systems designed to trigger dopamine responses and pull users back to the app, likes and follower counts that create social validation loops and peer pressure, and disappearing messages and stories that create urgency and fear of missing out.
A landmark court ruling by Judge Carolyn Kuhl determined that these design features are "product designs" rather than protected speech, meaning a jury can decide whether they are inherently dangerous to developing brains. This ruling effectively removed the companies' longstanding Section 230 defense that had previously shielded them from liability.
What Mental Health Harms Are Linked to Social Media Addiction?
Scientific research and the lawsuits themselves link prolonged social media use in minors to severe depression and anxiety, eating disorders and body dysmorphia (especially from exposure to filtered and curated images on Instagram and TikTok), self-harm including cutting and other self-injurious behaviors, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, sleep disorders and insomnia from late-night scrolling, attention problems and declining academic performance, social isolation despite appearing "connected" online, and in the most tragic cases, death from suicide or dangerous viral challenges like the TikTok "blackout challenge."The American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Surgeon General have all issued warnings about the impact of social media on adolescent mental health.
Is There a Deadline to File?
There is no single class action claim form deadline because these are individual lawsuits consolidated into a Multi-District Litigation (MDL), not a traditional class action settlement with one claim form. However, every state has a statute of limitations — a legal deadline after which you can no longer file a claim. These deadlines vary by state and by the type of harm. An attorney can determine whether a claim is still within the applicable time limit, and the free evaluation can help clarify whether a claim is still within the window.Key Dates and Timeline
January 20, 2026: Snapchat (Snap Inc.) settles in K.G.M. bellwether trial
January 27, 2026: TikTok (ByteDance) settles in K.G.M. bellwether trial
January-March 2026: First bellwether trial held in LA Superior Court (K.G.M. v. Meta et al.) — Meta and YouTube remained as defendants
February 2026: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at trial
March 25, 2026: Jury finds Meta and YouTube negligent and awards $6 million — the first social media addiction verdict (state court; subject to appeal)
May 21, 2026: First federal bellwether (Breathitt County, KY) settles for a combined $27 million before trial
Early June 2026: Judge Kuhl denies Meta's and Google's post-trial motions to overturn the K.G.M. verdict, leaving it intact
July 7, 2026: Meta files a notice of appeal of the K.G.M. verdict — the verdict is now on appeal
July 13, 2026: YouTube (Google) files its own notice of appeal of the K.G.M. verdict, joining Meta — both defendants are now appealing
July 20, 2026: Snap Inc. (Snapchat) reaches a tentative settlement in the R.K.C. bellwether (terms undisclosed), leaving Meta as the only defendant set for the July 27 trial
July 20, 2026: Jury selection begins in Nashville in Tennessee's separate state enforcement trial against Meta over Instagram's alleged addictive design (about a seven-week trial); Meta denies the allegations
July 22, 2026: R.K.C. dismisses the remaining claims against Meta after YouTube, TikTok, and Snap all settled, so the second California (JCCP) bellwether does not go to trial on July 27 — Meta had been the sole remaining defendant
August 12–18, 2026: The 29-state attorneys general enforcement trial against Meta begins in Oakland — jury selection August 12, opening statements August 18; states seek up to ~$1.4 trillion in penalties, which Meta disputes
August 26, 2026: Meta settles with the states for up to $17.1 billion — about $12.1 billion committed over ten years, roughly $5 billion more if Snap, TikTok and YouTube settle too, plus five years of teen product changes. Covers 47 states, D.C. and three territories, and ends the Tennessee trial as well. Texas settles separately for about $1 billion. Awaiting court approval; no admission of liability; pays state governments, not families, and carries no claim form
October 2026: Next personal-injury bellwether trial scheduled in the California (JCCP 5255) proceeding
February 2027: Next federal school-district bellwethers (Tucson Unified, Charleston County) set for trial
Status
Injury cases open — no consumer claim form
Case Title
In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation
Case Number
MDL No. 3047
Court
U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland)
Judge
Hon. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers
Parallel State Proceeding
JCCP 5255 — Social Media Cases (Los Angeles Superior Court)
Pending Claims
3,137 in MDL 3047 per the JPML report dated August 3, 2026 (3,312 filed since the MDL was created); JCCP 5255 counted separately
Defendants
Meta Platforms (Instagram, Facebook), ByteDance (TikTok), Snap Inc. (Snapchat), Alphabet (YouTube), and others
Next Trial
October 2026 — personal-injury bellwether, JCCP 5255 (Los Angeles)
Claim Form
None — individual injury cases are filed through a law firm, not a claims administrator
Sources
• The Free Speech Center / AP — TikTok Settles as Social Media Giants Face Landmark Trial (Jan 2026)• California Attorney General — Bonta Secures Transformative $17 Billion Settlement with Meta (Aug 26, 2026)
• Colorado Attorney General — Weiser Announces Historic Settlement with Meta Platforms (Aug 26, 2026)
• NPR — Meta, States Agree to $17 Billion Settlement in Child Safety Trial (Aug 26, 2026)
• U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation — MDL statistics report (Aug 3, 2026)
• NBC News — Jury Reaches Verdict in Landmark Social Media Addiction Trial (Mar 2026)
• Engadget — Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube Settle Kentucky School Social Media Suit (May 2026)
• Insurance Journal via Reuters — Meta Says States Seek Up to $1.4 Trillion in Social Media Addiction Trial (July 7, 2026)
• Associated Press via Las Vegas Sun — Meta Appeals Landmark Social Media Addiction Verdict After Post-Trial Motions Denied (July 10, 2026)
• Associated Press via U.S. News — YouTube Joins Meta in Appealing the $6M Social Media Addiction Verdict (July 15, 2026)
• Claims Journal via Bloomberg — Snap Nears Settlement of Addiction Case Ahead of Jury Trial, Leaving Meta to Face Trial (July 20, 2026)
• JURIST — Tennessee Takes Meta to Trial Over Instagram Addiction Allegations (July 2026)
Filing Class Action Settlement Claims
Please note that your claim form will be rejected if you submit a settlement claim with any fraudulent information. By providing this information and your sworn statement of its veracity, you agree to do so under the penalty of perjury. If you are not sure whether you qualify, visit the class action administrator's website. OpenClassActions.com is a consumer advocacy and class action news site, and is not a class action administrator or a law firm. OpenClassActions is a participant in the Amazon affiliate advertising program and this post may contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission or fees if you make a purchase via those links.
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