‘These verdicts mark an unsurprising breaking point,’ said Forrester VP research director Mike Proulx.
A landmark legal case has found that Meta and YouTube are designed to be addictive to children. A day earlier, Meta lost a child safety lawsuit, which found that its platforms’ design features enable child sexual exploitation.
The mounting legal challenges are being heralded by some as Big Tech’s ‘Big Tobacco moment’, intending to address some of the harm caused by social media platforms to its youngest users.
A jury in Los Angeles deliberated the case across nine days and concluded that Meta and YouTube are liable to pay the 20-year-old plaintiff behind the lawsuit a total of $6m in damages. Meta has been assigned 70pc of the financial responsibility, and YouTube 30pc.
Half of each company’s penalties will be used to compensate the plaintiff’s losses, including for mental health support, while the other half is for punitive damages to punish the companies.
Kaley GM’s lawsuit, filed in 2022, also included TikTok and Snapchat; however, both of them have since settled outside of court.
The young plaintiff said she began using YouTube from the age of six, and Instagram from nine. One day, she spent 16 hours on Instagram, she said. The plaintiff blamed the platforms for inflicting harm, including depression and body dysmorphia.
Her lawsuit is one of thousands currently pending, which together could deliver serious financial damages to the companies involved and help change the legal landscape social media platforms function under.
Meta and Google said they disagreed with the verdict. Google said it plans to appeal, while Meta said it is evaluating its legal options.
“This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” Google added.
Attempts have been made in recent years to bolster child safety on social media, including a controversial underage social media ban which took effect in Australia, and is currently being debated in several European countries. Platforms are also beginning to self-police.
‘Traditional’ social media aside, the advent of generative AI tools has added to the difficulty of protecting users online, as seen with Grok, where users can prompt the chatbot to undress people in pictures and videos.
“These verdicts mark an unsurprising breaking point. Negative sentiment toward social media has been building for years, and now it’s finally boiled over,” said Forrester’s VP research director Mike Proulx.
“This problem sits at the intersection of social media companies’ platform responsibility, years of government regulatory inaction, and the role parents and educators play in helping kids build healthier digital habits.
“These verdicts aren’t just about social media’s past. They’re a dire warning about how we handle the next wave of technology.”
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