A jury in Los Angeles found Google and Meta liable for $3 million in damages in a case accusing their platforms of contributing to social media addiction.

• A Los Angeles jury found Google and Meta liable for $3 million in damages in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit.
• The case centred on claims that addictive design features on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram contributed to a young user’s dependency from an early age.
• The verdict could influence thousands of similar lawsuits filed by parents, schools and state authorities against major tech companies.

A Los Angeles jury found Alphabet’s Google and ⁠Meta liable for $3 million in damages on Wednesday in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit.

The outcome could influence thousands of similar cases against the tech companies brought by parents, attorneys general and school districts. At least half of American teens use YouTube or Instagram daily, ‌according to the Pew Research Centre.

The Los Angeles case involves a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to the apps at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design. The plaintiffs in the Los Angeles proceeding focused on platform design rather ‌than content, making it harder for the companies to avert liability. Snap and TikTok were also defendants in the trial. Both settled with the plaintiff before it began. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

Shares of Meta were up 1%, and Alphabet was slightly higher after the verdict, but little changed on the news.

Meta disagrees with the verdict ‌, and its lawyers are “evaluating our ⁠legal options,” a company spokesperson said. Google did not have an immediate comment.

READ | Addiction by design? Lawsuits reignite debate over social media’s impact on young minds

“Today’s verdict is a referendum — from a jury, to an entire industry — that accountability has arrived,” the plaintiff’s lead counsel said in a statement.

Mounting criticism

Large technology companies in the US have faced mounting criticism in the last decade over child and teen safety. The debate has now shifted to courts and state governments.

The US Congress has declined to pass comprehensive legislation regulating social media. At least 20 states enacted laws last year on social media use and children, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures, an organisation that tracks state laws.

The legislation includes bills that regulate ⁠the use of cellphones in schools and require users to verify their ages to open a social media account. NetChoice, a trade association backed by tech companies such as Meta and Google, is seeking to invalidate age verification requirements in court.

READ | Beyond the hashtags and trends: Understanding the risks behind the latest social media challenges

A separate social media addiction case brought by several states and school ⁠districts against technology companies is expected to go to trial this summer in federal court in Oakland, California.

Another state trial is slated to begin in Los Angeles in July, said Matthew Bergman, one of the attorneys leading the cases for the plaintiffs. It will involve Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat.

Separately, a New Mexico ⁠jury on Tuesday found Meta violated state law in a lawsuit brought by the state’s attorney general, who ‌accused the company ‌of misleading users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and of enabling child sexual exploitation on those platforms.