For years, social media companies have disputed the mass amount of allegations that claim social media can harm children’s mental health, through intentional design choices that can addict kids to their platforms and failures to protect them from predators and other dangerous content. Now, these tech giants are getting a chance to make their case in courtrooms around the country, including before a jury for the first time.
Some of the biggest players, Meta Platforms and TikTok, are facing federal and state trials that seek to hold them responsible for harming children’s mental health. The lawsuits have come from school districts, local and state governments, and the federal government, in addition to thousands of families.
Two trials are currently in progress, one in Los Angeles and the other New Mexico, with many more to come. The courtroom showdowns are the climax of years of research into platforms over child safety, and whether the intentional design choices make them addictive and promote content that leads to things like depression, eating disorders or even suicide. Experts have seen this reckoning to past cases against tobacco and opioid industries, and the plaintiffs hope that social media platforms will see similar outcomes similar to those faced by cigarette makers and drug companies, pharmacies and distributors.
“This is a monumental inflection point in social media,” said Matthew Bergman of the, Seattle-based, Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs in lawsuits against social media companies. “When we started doing this four years ago no one said we’d ever get to trial. And here we are trying our case in front of a fair and impartial jury.”
“I’m not sure what to say to that,” Mark Zuckerberg said. “I don’t think that applies here.”
With some appeals and any potential settlement discussions, the cases against social media companies could take many years and years to resolve. Unlike in Europe and Australia, the tech regulation in the U.S. is moving at a very glacial pace.“Parents, education, and other stakeholders are increasingly hoping lawmakers will do more,” Smiley said. “While there is momentum at the state and federal level, Big Tech lobbying, enforcement challenges, and lawmaker disagreements over how to best regulate social media have slowed meaningful progress.” Ultimately, these cases may determine how much responsibility social media companies must take for the well being of young users.
