Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to address “addictive features” in social media, signalling a potential crackdown on risks to children following a landmark US court ruling. The verdict in California held Meta and YouTube liable for harms caused by designing addictive technology, with a jury awarding $6m (£4.5m) in damages to a young woman who became hooked on social media as a child.
Starmer said the ruling reflected rising public expectations for stricter regulation. “The status quo isn’t good enough,” he stated. “We need to do more to protect children. That’s why we’re consulting about issues such as banning social media for under-16s. I’m very keen that we do more on addictive features within social media.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrated the verdict, calling it “a reckoning”. They said in a statement: “For too long, families have paid the price for platforms built with total disregard for the children they reach. … Let this be the change – where our children’s safety is finally prioritised above profit.”
Google, which owns YouTube, said it would appeal, arguing the case “misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site”. Meta also said it disagreed with the verdict and was evaluating legal options. In Brussels, EU digital chief Henna Virkkunen said the case sent “a very clear message” that platforms must take risks seriously.
Campaigners for safer social media hailed the decision as a potential watershed. The Molly Rose Foundation, set up after the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, said: “The ruling will rightly send shock waves across the tech sector and governments … [The government] can make safety and wellbeing the price for tech firms to pay for doing business in the UK.”
With more similar cases pending, Sacha Haworth of the Tech Oversight Project declared: “The era of big tech invincibility is over. After years of gaslighting … new evidence and testimony have pulled back the curtain and validated the harms young people and parents have been telling the world about for years.”
