Twenty years after social media was hailed as a force to connect humanity, the industry is facing a legal reckoning that could change the way platforms operate forever. Today, Meta, Google, Snapchat, TikTok, Discord and Roblox are battling thousands of lawsuits in the United States, brought by young users, their parents, and school districts who claim the companies have harmed children. “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 wave of litigation has created what Eric Talley, a lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School, calls “a stage that not only legal observers are watching, but regulators and lawmakers are watching closely as well.” Talley noted that the growing legal battle is feeding into broader public perception, likely to influence elections and shape new laws for years to come. Many of the cases are going through courts in California, where all major social platforms are headquartered – a dynamic known as the “California effect” because policy changes there tend to ripple nationwide.
“Meta, Google and others face thousands of US lawsuits over child safety; a $6m verdict has been won.”
Already this year, Meta and YouTube suffered an unprecedented loss when a jury ordered them to pay a combined $6m – about £4.5m – to a young woman who said she became addicted to social media as a child, contributing to her mental and emotional health struggles. Both companies said they disagreed with the verdict and intended to appeal. Separately, Meta lost a larger case brought by New Mexico’s attorney general, who accused the company of misleading the public that its platforms were safe for children despite known issues of sexual exploitation. Meta also said it plans to appeal that verdict.
In response to the growing scrutiny, Meta has released changes to its platforms aimed at making them safer for young users. But broader change – to how platforms are designed, function, and are even accessed – is likely to take years more, and more court rulings against them. Between this year and next, Meta and the other major social platforms are poised to fight their way through more trials where juries could consider a host of claims by young users, their parents, and school districts. The outcome, whether through settlements or jury verdicts, could change the social media landscape forever.