A jury in Los Angeles has found Meta and YouTube liable for designing addictive products that harmed a young user, awarding $6 million in damages. The verdict, reached after nine days of deliberations, holds Meta responsible for 70% of the payout and YouTube for the remainder. The case is the first of its kind to go to trial over social media's alleged harm to young people.
The plaintiff, identified as KGM, testified that she became addicted to YouTube at age six and Instagram at nine, leading to depression and self-harm by age 10. Her lawyer, Mark Lanier, argued that the companies engineered addiction through features like infinite scroll and autoplay, comparing them to Trojan horses. The jury found both companies negligent and failing to provide adequate warnings about their products' dangers.
The verdict follows a separate case in New Mexico where Meta was ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties for misleading consumers about platform safety and enabling child sexual exploitation. Both companies have announced plans to appeal. A Meta spokesperson stated that teen mental health is complex and cannot be linked to a single app, while a YouTube spokesperson insisted the platform is a responsibly built streaming service, not a social media site.
