2026-03-27 17:35:30
A landmark legal victory has been dealt against Meta and Google.
It comes after a Los Angeles jury found the companies built addictive platforms that harmed her mental health.
The case centred on Kaley, aged 20, who sued the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, alongside Google, which owns YouTube, alleging their platforms were designed in ways that encouraged compulsive use from a young age.
Jurors ruled in her favour, awarding $6million in damages – split between $3million in compensatory damages and $3million in punitive damages – after determining the companies had “acted with malice, oppression, or fraud”.
Meta was assigned 70 percent of the liability, with Google responsible for the remaining 30 percent.
The verdict follows a five-week trial and is expected to influence hundreds of similar cases currently progressing through US courts.
Speaking during the case, Kaley said: “I stopped engaging with family because I was spending all my time on social media.”
She added: “I was 10 years old when I started having feelings of anxiety and depression.”
Kaley also told the court she began using Instagram at the age of nine and YouTube at six, encountering no effective barriers to access despite minimum age restrictions. She said features such as filters altered her perception of her own appearance, contributing to body dysmorphia.
The ruling has prompted strong reactions from campaigners and industry figures.
Ellen Roome, who is pursuing legal action against TikTok following the death of her son, said on BBC Breakfast: “How many more children are going to be harmed and potentially die from these platforms?”
She added: “It’s been proved it’s not safe – and social media companies need to fix it.”
Amy Neville, whose family has also campaigned on online harms, was among parents gathered outside the courthouse during the trial.
Witnesses described scenes of celebration as the verdict was delivered, with families embracing after the decision.
Mike Proulx, research director at advisory firm Forrester, said the ruling reflected wider public concern. He said: “Negative sentiment toward social media has been building for years, and now it’s finally boiled over.”
Political figures also responded.
Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “It’s not if things are going to change, things are going to change. The question is, how much and what are we going to do?”
Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly died after viewing harmful online content, said on Newsnight: “There is a big hope that this is a big moment and tech will… (need) to change, but only if the governments do something about it.”
Meta and Google both said they would appeal the verdict.
A Meta spokesperson said: “Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.”
And a Google spokesperson added: “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”
During proceedings, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta, defended the company’s safeguards, stating he had “always wished” for faster progress in identifying underage users while insisting the company had reached the “right place over time”.
The case focused heavily on Instagram’s design features, including infinite scroll, which Kaley’s lawyers argued were engineered to maximise engagement.
Evidence presented during the trial suggested younger users were particularly valuable to platforms due to their long-term retention potential.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, rejected claims that extended usage alone demonstrated addiction, describing prolonged daily use by teenagers as “problematic” rather than evidence of dependency.
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