Meta, TikTok and YouTube face landmark trial over youth addiction claims

Meta, TikTok and YouTube face a landmark trial in Los Angeles starting this week over claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. Jury selection begins in Los Angeles County Superior Court, with the process expected to take at least a few days as 75 potential jurors are questioned each day through at least Thursday.

This marks the first time the three companies will argue their case before a jury in a trial centered on social media's impact on youth mental health. The outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they handle children using their platforms.

At the core of the case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials "KGM," a California resident who claims she became addicted to the platforms when younger due to their attention-grabbing design. According to court filings, she alleges the applications fed her depression and suicidal thoughts and is seeking to hold the companies responsible for the harm caused.

Her case is positioned as a test case for thousands of other lawsuits seeking damages for social media harms. The trial is the first of a wave of lawsuits headed for trial this year brought against social media companies by more than 1,000 individual plaintiffs and hundreds of schools.

A fourth company named in the original lawsuit, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum. The settlement came before jury selection began for the remaining defendants.

The central question in the trial will be whether tech companies deliberately built their platforms to hook young users, contributing to what plaintiffs characterize as a youth mental health crisis. The jury's decision is expected to influence how similar cases proceed and may shape how the tech industry approaches product design for younger audiences.