A jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay a combined $6m (£4.5m) to a young woman who claimed she was addicted as a child to social media, contributing to her mental and emotional health struggles — an unprecedented loss that both companies say they will appeal. The case is one of thousands now advancing through US courts against platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Discord and Roblox, all accused of harming users, children in particular.
“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.”
“Meta and YouTube lost a $6m child addiction lawsuit as thousands of US cases threaten to reshape social platforms.”
Taken together, the outcomes of the lawsuits, whether settled or decided by juries against the companies, could change the way social platforms operate forever, according to legal experts. Most of the cases are being heard in California, where all the major social platforms are headquartered. Known as the “California effect”, legal and policy changes enacted in the state tend to lead to nationwide changes.
In another major defeat, Meta lost a 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 with young people being sexually exploited on them. Meta also said it plans to appeal that verdict.
“It’s created a stage that not only legal observers are watching, but regulators and lawmakers are watching closely as well,” said Eric Talley, a lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School. Talley noted that the growing wave of lawsuits is feeding into broader public perception, likely to influence political elections for the next several years and impact new and revised laws and regulations.
During the years these cases were brought and resolved, 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 even accessed — is likely to take years more and require more court rulings against them. Between this year and next, Meta and 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.