Snap Settles Lawsuit Alleging Its Platform Fueled Teen Depression and Eating Disorders
The settlement avoids Snap’s first trial in a broader wave of youth-safety litigation, where CEO Evan Spiegel was expected to testify. The two plaintiffs had already settled similar claims with Meta, TikTok and YouTube; Snap announced its agreement in November 2026.
Snap has reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by two teenagers who accused the company of designing its platform to be addictive and contributing to their depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, Reuters first reported. The settlement was announced in November 2026.
The two plaintiffs had previously reached settlements with Meta, TikTok, and YouTube over similar claims. The Snap case had been set to be the company’s first to go to trial in a broader wave of litigation over social media’s impact on young users, and Snap CEO Evan Spiegel had been expected to testify.
The plaintiffs said they began using YouTube as young as age 3 and other social media platforms around age 9. They attributed compulsive usage habits they developed to platform features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling, which they argued were deliberately designed to keep young users engaged.
In a statement to TechCrunch, a Snap spokesperson said: “The Parties are pleased to have been able to resolve this matter in an amicable manner. We’ve built safeguards, launched safety tutorials, and partnered with experts and because safety is never finished, we remain committed to continually strengthening the safety, privacy, and well-being of our community.”
The case is part of a larger legal wave facing social media companies, which are collectively dealing with thousands of lawsuits in federal and state courts. Those suits broadly allege that platforms knowingly designed their products to hook young users and contributed to a youth mental health crisis involving anxiety, depression, and suicide.