Social Media Giants Face Jury Trials Over Child Mental Health Harms
Social media giants including Meta and TikTok are facing federal and state trials seeking to hold them responsible for harming children's mental health through deliberate design choices that allegedly addict kids to platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content.
Two trials are underway in Los Angeles and New Mexico, representing the culmination of years of scrutiny over whether platforms serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide.
The Los Angeles case centers on a 20-year-old identified as KGM whose case could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits play out, with addiction at its core. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in February 2026, maintaining that the existing body of scientific work has not proven that social media causes mental health harms. Matthew Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs, called the trial a monumental inflection point.
In New Mexico, Attorney General Raúl Torrez built a case by posing as children on social media and documenting sexual solicitations they received and Meta's response, with prosecuting attorney Donald Migliori telling the jury that Meta clearly knew youth safety was less important than growth and engagement. A trial scheduled for summer 2026 pits six public school districts against social media companies before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, with plaintiffs' lawyer Jayne Conroy comparing the addiction cornerstone to opioid cases.
The outcomes could challenge Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act and could force companies to change how they operate, potentially losing users and advertising dollars. With appeals and settlement discussions, the cases could take years to resolve as tech regulation in the U.S. moves at a glacial pace compared to Europe and Australia.
Full Story: AP