Meta and YouTube were found liable for the mental health issues a young woman experienced due to her usage of social media. The jury awarded the plaintiff $3 million in compensation and an extra $3 million in punitive damages. The conclusion determined that social media platforms should be considered defective due to their addictive nature which exploits the developing brains of youth. Though this sum of money will not heavily impact these companies, this outcome sets a precedent for potentially thousands of other similar lawsuits.

Kaley, the plaintiff of this trial, is a 20 year old female known in court filings as K.G.M. In 2023, when K.G.M was 17, her parents filed a suit on her behalf against Meta and other social media companies for deliberately designing their platforms to be addictive for children. She started using YouTube at 6 years old and Instagram at 9 years old. Her legal claim is that her various mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, and suicidal ideation, were exacerbated by her addiction to social media. The platforms she sued included Meta, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok. The trial only involved Meta and YouTube because Snapchat and TikTok settled with the plaintiff prior to the trial. The case represents 2,000 other cases similar to K.G.M. and is known as a Bellwether trial, a test case that will help decide how the thousands of pending and future cases will be resolved.

In a separate trial in New Mexico, Meta has been fined with $5,000 per violation, adding up to $375 million. The company, formerly known as Facebook, was accused of misleading users and enabling child exploitation of their platforms. The lawsuit alleges that conscious platform design choices put children at risk and introduce dangerous content such as predators. A second phase of the trial is scheduled for this month and will be heard by a bench trial rather than a jury.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta co-led a bipartisan coalition of 33 attorneys general against Meta on October 24, 2023. This is another major lawsuit against Meta, which claims that they are violating state and federal laws because of their addictive features to keep minors engaged with their platforms and to maximize their usage. The states also claim that Meta is collecting data from users under 13 without parental consent. Meta argued against these accusations, claiming that it has provided more than 30 tools to support the wellbeing of teens online. This is an active trial and currently does not have a definitive outcome.

The K.G.M. v. Meta case is significant because it does not focus on the question of whether Meta is protected by Section 230 of The Communication Decency Act. This is a federal law that in the past has protected platforms like social media from being held legally liable for content posted by users. Since this case focuses on the platform being defective, it is bypassing the issue of Section 230. Although there is no formal diagnosis for social media addiction, the plaintiffs of the K.G.M. case argue that the platforms’ intentional engineering, design, and features is the cause of the harm. Filters that alter one’s appearance and notifications such as likes and follows are aimed to make the app more alluring to young users. K.G.M claims that beauty filters contributed to her body dysmorphia, and she did not feel bad about her appearance before her usage of social media. The legal question is whether platform designers had an obligation to consider how their product could affect developing minds, especially if they were aware of the risks regarding the health of young people.

Social media is strongly correlated with a plethora of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and low self esteem. Late-night scrolling can lead to serious sleep deprivation and depression. On top of this, consistent usage of social media platforms encourages social comparison, which fuels insecurity and results in lower self worth. Young people, such as adolescents, are susceptible to this due to the desire for peer acceptance and belonging as well as neurological development.