K.G.M, as she is known to the court, was six years old when she started scrolling through YouTube videos. When she was 9, she set up an Instagram account.
In her lawsuit she says she became addicted to the platforms and accused YouTube and Instagram parent company Meta of making their products addictive, similar to how Big Tobacco hooked generations of smokers. The jury in a California state court agreed and awarded her a total of $6 million, with more to come.
Meta must pay $4.2 million, YouTube $1.8 million.
The verdict in K.G.M.’s case — one of thousands of lawsuits filed by teenagers, school districts and state attorneys general against Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap, which owns Snapchat — was a major win for the plaintiffs. The finding validates a novel legal theory that social media sites or apps can cause personal injury. It is likely to factor into similar cases expected to go to trial this year, The New York Times reported.
Dan Schneider of Media Research Center says it was the right outcome but the wrong venue.
“It's Congress's job to resolve these kinds of issues. Congress has been derelict at it.”
Instead, he says, the courts stepped in.
“What I've been most concerned about is that you've got 12 random people in a jury box who are really going to determine national policy for everybody,” Schneider said.
Meta and YouTube say they will appeal the decision; Schneider says the floodgates have opened.
“I'll tell you what just happened. We just enriched a bunch of trial lawyers who are going to take at least half of this whole verdict, and they're just chomping at the bit to keep on going down this gravy train.”
On the positive side of the ledger, lawmakers have the green light to make some legislative changes. But Schneider says it's parents who need to take the lead in protecting their kids.
“So maybe we should make the social media companies notify parents when they detect that the kids are misusing the phones.”
