“Our ultimate goal is to hold social media companies accountable for how their actions have affected millions of children across the country,” attorney John Morgan, who is representing the youths, said in a statement.
The teenagers from Illinois and Mississippi began using YouTube at the age of three and other apps when they were nine, according to Reuters.
They accuse the companies of creating addictive features.
Now they have settled with the publicly traded tech giant Snap, after previously reaching settlements with Meta, Tiktok and YouTube.
Tech giant won't have to testify
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was due to testify in court this week, but the settlement avoided what would have been the company's first trial over Snapchat's impact on young people.
Snap has denied the allegations, saying it has taken steps to make its apps "safe places" for young people to express themselves.
The case was chosen by the California Supreme Court from among thousands of similar cases. Meta and YouTube lost the first such case in the state in March. A jury awarded a young woman $6 million in damages.
The next similar case will begin in March, according to Reuters.
Thousands of Lawsuits
Social media companies are facing thousands of lawsuits over their apps’ impact on young people. In addition to individuals and governments, 30 states have also sued the tech giants, according to CBS's compilation.
In August, Meta reached settlements worth up to $18 billion after 48 US state prosecutors accused the company of knowingly designing its apps to make children and teenagers addicted.
As part of the settlement, Meta introduced changes to protect younger users, such as a default limit of two hours of use per day.
Meta admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.
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