Could young people in the UK benefit from the victory of a small group of schools in Kentucky over social media giant Meta? The answer is not straightforward, ITV News Correspondent Rachel Younger reports
A small school district in America has been paid $27 million (around £20 million) by a group of social media companies, after arguing their products were responsible for damaging pupils’ mental health.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, chose to pay the settlement this week rather than defend itself in a Californian court.
The tech giant faced claims its social network was deliberately designed to be addictive, causing harm to children.
Tik Tok, Snap and YouTube had already chosen to settle, contributing to the payout. All four tech giants deny any wrongdoing.
Breathitt School District, which looks after six schools in Kentucky, sued the companies to fund specialist mental health support for pupils suffering from depression and anxiety.
Its claim was viewed as a bellwether case by other far larger US school districts, such as Los Angeles and New York, who are already planning to sue for much bigger sums.
In a statement a spokesperson for Meta said: “We’ve resolved this case amicably and remain focused on our longstanding work to build protections like Teen Accounts, that help teens stay safe online while giving parents simple controls to support their families.”
It came just weeks after the company’s owner Mark Zuckerberg had to give evidence in a similar trial in Los Angeles, alongside representatives from YouTube.
The two companies had to pay out $6 million (around £4.5 million) to a young woman after the jury found they had deliberately designed addictive products and failed to provide adequate warnings about their safety.
Snap and TikTok were also named in the case but settled before the trial. Both YouTube and Meta have said they plan to appeal the rulings.
Could the same happen in the UK?Teachers in the UK share similar concerns about the harm social media is causing their pupils. Many schools are trying to combat it by putting tougher limits on the access children have to their devices.
But at Ecclesfield School in Sheffield they are in no doubt about the extra costs they face, on both a financial and emotional level.
Liz Hunter, curriculum leader of PHSE and RE at the school, describes a litany of mental health problems her team deals with every day
Teacher Liz Hunter tells how she sees social media affecting the mental health of her school’s pupils
When I ask her how many of those problems are caused by social media she is adamant.
‘Almost all of them’ she sighs.
So could teachers in the UK follow the American example and try to win back any costs to their schools through the courts?
The British state school system is centrally funded and regulated making it very different to its more independent and localised American counterpart.
UK legal experts warn the British judicial system is also far less favourable, as Heather Gagen, head of dispute resolution at London law firm Travers Smith explains.
“There is a long history of product related litigation that’s novel, tracking across the Atlantic from the US to the UK. But how those claims actually play out in practice can look very different,” she told ITV News.
Travers Smith LLP’s Heather Gagen explains how fundamental differences between the English and US legal systems could prove an obstacle for would-be claimants
Big Tech is certainly under scrutiny here for the duties that it owes its younger users, but I think the open question is, is it going to be policymakers who are actively looking at this area or litigation that defines the scope of those duties?
“There are also differences in English law and US law that would be relevant to these claims, but importantly, there are differences in the legal process.
“So in England, it is judges, not juries, who make awards of compensation, and that tends to mean that we see higher levels of award in the US than we would in the UK.
“Cost rules here are also different, and I think those are the sorts of factors that would play into different litigation and settlement strategies potentially here.
“So, in short, while it’s possible these claims could be made here, they would be by no means straightforward to bring or to win.”
Instead, the British government is leaning towards introducing more sweeping laws to take on the tech giants, forcing them to change their behaviour or face huge fines.
The Online Safety Act aims to achieve this – placing new legal duties on platforms to protect children from harmful content, while giving regulator Ofcom the power to imposed fines of up to £18 million, or 10% of global annual turnover, for non-compliance.
But like the cases against big tobacco in the 1990s, which focused on cigarettes addictive qualities and companies’ public denials, the tech companies that wanted our likes are now facing a growing wave of legal action.
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