Social media addiction in court

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Court hands social media doom scroll - 6th April 2026

The jury in a California civil suit against Meta and YouTube has held two tech giants liable for a child becoming hooked on their platforms, and for the harm that she suffered as a consequence. Ruling that they had intentionally engineered their sites to create addiction, the landmark decision vindicates the 20-year-old plaintiff, who was referred to as Kaley, or the initials KGM, throughout proceedings.

Kaley testified that she'd become addicted to Google-owned YouTube aged just 6 and Instagram, part of Meta's suite of social apps, at 9. She reported suffering with depression and beginning to self-harm from 10 onwards.

Kaley detailed how childhood social-media addiction had caused her wider harm, negatively impacting relationships with close family, and at school. At 13, Kaley's therapist diagnosed her with body dysmorphic disorder and social phobia, which she also attributes to using these platforms.

At trial, top executives and whistleblowers from both companies took the stand alongside expert witnesses called to testify on the nature of addiction and social media. Making his closing argument, Kaley's lawyer posed the question on which his case rested: "How do you make a child never put down the phone? That's called the 'engineering of addiction'."

This swayed the jury to rule in Kaley's favour, determining that Meta and Google's conduct amounted to their having "acted with malice, oppression or fraud". Jurors awarded Kaley $3 million in compensatory damages and a further $3 million in punitive damages. 70 percent of the overall sum was attributed to Meta with Google liable for the remainder.

Given that governments across the globe are already enacting laws restricting under-16s' access to social media, the court ruling lands tech giants a further blow. Following the verdict, Meta and Google both stated their intention to appeal the decision. Meta released a statement declaring, "We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online."

As a bellwether case, the outcome for KGM stands to influence the progress of a further 1,600 related lawsuits pending in the USA. Kaley's supporters celebrated the verdict, which serves to validate their argument that the platforms themselves are to be blamed for children's social-media addiction, and not the parents.