Social media companies that were once hailed as a force for global connection now face a legal reckoning in US courts, with thousands of lawsuits accusing them of harming children — and two recent jury verdicts suggest the tide may be turning.
In a landmark case this year, a young woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child won a combined $6m (£4.5m) in damages from Meta and YouTube. A jury ordered the companies to pay for contributing to her mental and emotional health struggles. Both firms said they disagreed with the verdict and intend to appeal.
“Social media firms face thousands of US lawsuits over child safety, with recent jury verdicts against Meta and YouTube.”
That loss followed a bigger case brought by New Mexico’s attorney general, who accused Meta of misleading the public that its platforms were safe for children despite known issues with sexual exploitation. Again, Meta lost and said it would appeal.
“There’s no denying anymore that there is an issue with child safety on the platforms,” said Alexis Shore Ingber, a communications law expert and professor at Syracuse University. “We are seeing an inflection point. These cases are significant.”
The explosion of litigation against Meta, Google (owner of YouTube), Snapchat, TikTok, Discord and Roblox is concentrated in California, where all major social platforms are headquartered. Legal experts say the “California effect” means changes there often ripple nationwide.
Eric Talley, a lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School, said the mounting lawsuits are creating “a stage that not only legal observers are watching, but regulators and lawmakers are watching closely as well.” He noted that public perception shaped by the cases is likely to influence political elections and future regulations for years to come.
Meta has already introduced changes aimed at making its platforms safer for young users. But broader redesign of how platforms function and are accessed will probably take more years and further court defeats, the BBC reports.
Between this year and next, Meta and other social platforms are expected to fight through more trials where juries could consider a host of claims brought by young users, their parents and school districts.