A Los Angeles judge has ruled that social media giants Meta and Google-owned YouTube are guilty of negligent platform design that caused brain damage to a teenager.
The decision comes days after a personal injury lawsuit that industry experts say will have a negative impact on Big Tech.
Meta loses major child safety trial, ordered to pay $375 million
The judge agreed with the plaintiff that the platform’s design features were a “significant factor” in causing mental health-related harm and that the company’s leaders knew their products could be dangerously addictive. The companies were ordered to split the $3 million in compensatory damages, with Meta paying 70 percent and YouTube paying 30 percent.
The judge later awarded an additional $3 million in punitive damages. YouTube’s lawyer apologized to the plaintiff in court, i New York Times reported, saying: “We apologize for the things you have suffered. We at YouTube truly hope that there have been things on YouTube that have enriched your life and allowed you to express yourself.”
Meta says it is looking into legal avenues to appeal the decision. “We respectfully disagree with the decision and will appeal. The mental health of young people is very complex and cannot be linked to a single application. We will continue to vigorously defend ourselves as every case is different, and we remain confident in our history of protecting young people online,” the company said in a press release.
“Today, the jury found the truth and found Meta and Google guilty of designing products that are addictive and harmful to children,” said court-appointed plaintiffs’ attorneys Lexi Hazam and Previn Warren, in a statement following the ruling. “Technology’s top executives took the case, and their internal documents were put before the judge, revealing that the company’s leadership knew their platforms were harming children and repeatedly chose profit over children’s safety. This decision sends an undeniable message that no company is above accountability when it comes to our children.”
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Nonprofit Mothers Against Media Addiction (MAMA) called the decision “long overdue validation” for families of children who have been harmed or killed by suicide after engaging in harmful content online. “Now, our elected officials must build on this decision by passing legislation that requires online platforms to be safer by design and end Big Tech’s efforts to get kids addicted to their dangerous products,” wrote founder and executive director Julie Scelfo.
Instagram CEO Adam Moseri and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg both testified before a judge last month. Other social networks were also named in the case, which was brought by a young user called KGM and his mother. KGM accused the platforms of deliberately investing in features of the site that lead to addictive behavior, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts, even after safety warnings were flagged by internal staff – it’s the first of a consolidated group of lawsuits filed by more than 1,600 plaintiffs, known as the water lawsuit. TikTok and Snapchat both settled with KGM before the jury trial.
“Social media giants would never have been prosecuted if they had prioritized child safety over engagement. Instead, they buried their research showing that children are being harmed, and used children and the public as guinea pigs in massive, uncontrolled, and lucrative experiments,” wrote James P. Steyer, founder and CEO of the child safety nonprofit Common Sense Media.
A few hours before the KGM decision was announced, a different judge announced another Meta decision guilty, ordering the tech giant to pay $375 million in damages for misleading users about the platform’s security features and putting new users at risk. The lawsuit was filed by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, amid a wave of similar lawsuits against social media over the past few years.
In a press release following the Los Angeles verdict, Torrez said the jury saw Big Tech’s “deception” of society. “In the next phase of the New Mexico trial, my priority is still changing [Meta]a long and dangerous practice of putting profit before the safety of children,” said Torrez.
INTERIOR: March. 26, 2026, 10:27 am This story has been updated with comments from Meta.
INTERIOR: March. 25, 2026, 5:14 pm This story was updated to include the jury’s decision to award punitive damages to KGM
INTERIOR: March. 25, 2026, 2:37 pm This story has been updated with additional statements from the New Mexico Attorney General and Mothers Against Addiction News.
