Meta, YouTube guilty in social media addiction trial

A Los Angeles jury has ruled that social media giants Meta and Google-owned Youtube are guilty of negligent platform design that resulted in harm to a young user's mental health.

The ruling came after several days of deliberation in a personal injury lawsuit that industry experts say will have rippling effects on Big Tech.

The jury agreed with the plaintiff that the platforms' design features were a "substantial factor" in causing mental health-related harms and that company leaders knew their products could be dangerously addictive. The companies were ordered to split compensatory damages of $3 million, with Meta paying 70 percent and YouTube 30 percent.

The jury later announced an additional $3 million in punitive damages. YouTube's lawyer apologized to the plaintiff in court, the New York Times reported, saying: "We are sorry for the things you have suffered. We at YouTube truly hope there have been things at YouTube that have enriched your life and allowed you to express yourself.”

Meta says it is exploring legal options to appeal the decision. "We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal. Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online," the company said in a statement to the press.

"Today, a jury saw the truth and held Meta and Google accountable for designing products that addict and harm children," said court-appointed plaintiff counsel Lexi Hazam and Previn Warren, in a statement following the decision. "Top tech executives took the stand, and their own internal documents were put before a jury, revealing that company leadership knew their platforms were hurting kids and repeatedly chose profits over children's safety. This verdict sends an unmistakable message that no company is above accountability when it comes to our children." 

Nonprofit Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA) called the decision "long overdue validation" for families of children who had been hurt or died by suicide after engaging with harmful content online. "Now, our elected officials must build on the momentum from this ruling by passing legislation that requires online platforms to be safe by design and ends Big Tech’s efforts to addict kids to their dangerous products," founder and executive director Julie Scelfo wrote.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg both testified in front of the jury last month. Other social media platforms were also named in the lawsuit, brought forth by a young user referred to as K.G.M and her mother. K.G.M. accused the platforms of knowingly investing in site features that led to addictive behavior, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, even after safety warnings were flagged by internal employees — it's the first of a consolidated group of lawsuits filed by more than 1,600 plaintiffs, known as a watershed case. TikTok and Snapchat both settled with K.G.M. prior to the jury trial.

"Social media giants would never have faced trial if they had prioritized kids' safety over engagement. Instead, they buried their own research showing children were being harmed, and used kids and society as guinea pigs in massive, uncontrolled, and wildly profitable experiments," wrote James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of child safety nonprofit Common Sense Media.

Hours before the K.G.M decision was announced, a different jury announced another guilty verdict for Meta, which ordered the tech giant to pay $375 million in damages for misleading users about its platform's safety features and endangering young users. The case was brought forth by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, amid a wave of similar state-level lawsuits against social media platforms over the last few years.

In a statement sent to the media following the Los Angeles ruling, Torrez said that the jury recognized Big Tech's ongoing "deception" of the public. "In the next phase of New Mexico’s trial, my number one priority remains changing [Meta]’s longstanding and dangerous practice of prioritizing profits over children’s safety," said Torrez.

UPDATE: Mar. 26, 2026, 10:27 a.m. This story was updated with comment from Meta.

UPDATE: Mar. 25, 2026, 5:14 p.m. This story was updated to include the jury's decision to award punitive damages to K.G.M.

UPDATE: Mar. 25, 2026, 2:37 p.m. This story was updated with additional statements from the New Mexico Attorney General and Mothers Against Media Addiction.