US Court Find Google And Meta Liable For Social Media Addiction

Catenaa, Wednesday, March 25, 2026- A US court found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable on Wednesday in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit, ordering a combined compensation of $3 million.

The outcome could ‌influence thousands of similar cases against the tech companies brought by parents, attorneys general ‌, and school districts. At least half of American teens use YouTube or Instagram daily, according to the Pew Research ​Center.

The Los Angeles case involves a 20-year-old woman,  Kaley G.M, who said she became addicted to the apps at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design. The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles proceeding focused on platform design rather than content, making it harder for the companies to avert liability.

Snap and ‌TikTok were also defendants in the ⁠trial. Both settled with the plaintiff before it began. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Jurors said Meta must pay at least $2.1 million in damages, and Google must pay at least $900,000. The jury will hear more arguments on whether to also impose punitive damages on the companies.

In the first case of its kind to go to trial, the 12-person jury in a California state court was asked to decide whether Meta and Google were negligent in the design and operation of their platforms and should have warned that their products might be dangerous for minors.

Kaley, who said she started watching videos on YouTube at age six and began using the Instagram photo-sharing app at nine years old, blamed the platforms for various harms, including anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia.

Large technology companies in the US have faced mounting ⁠criticism in the last decade over child and teen safety. 

The debate has now shifted to courts and state governments. The US Congress has declined to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media.

At least 20 ​states ​enacted laws last year on social media usage and ​children, according to the nonpartisan National ‌Conference of State Legislatures, an organization that tracks state laws.

The legislation includes bills that regulate the use of cellphones in schools and require users to verify their ages to open a social media account. 

NetChoice, a trade association backed by tech companies such as Meta and Google, is seeking to invalidate age verification requirements in court.

A separate social media addiction case brought by several ‌states and school districts against technology companies is expected ​to go to trial this summer in federal court in ​Oakland, California.

Another state trial is slated ​to begin in Los Angeles in July, said Matthew Bergman, one of the ‌attorneys leading the cases for the plaintiffs. ​It will involve Instagram, ​YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Separately, a New Mexico jury on Tuesday found Meta violated state law in a lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general, who accused the company of ​misleading users about the safety ‌of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp and of enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms.