[1]LOS ANGELES (BP) – A day after a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $375 million [2] in damages, jurists in a Los Angeles courtroom agreed with a 20-year-old that mechanisms in Instagram and YouTube led to her social media addiction as a child to the tune of $6 million.
The decision came after seven weeks in court and 40 hours of deliberations. An initial verdict brought a $3 million ruling against the tech giant. Less than two hours later, the jury returned [3] to award $2.1 million in punitive damages against Meta and $900,000 against Google.
The case for the plaintiff, identified as “Kaley G.M.” was selected from among numerous others brought forward in California to proceed through the state court. She states that around age six she began using YouTube and created an Instagram account at nine years old. Her attorneys argued that features like algorithmic recommendations, infinite scroll, autoplay and deliberately unpredictable rewards led her to becoming addicted.
The jury, ultimately, agreed in what many are calling a bellwether case against social media.
“As of today, we are in a new world: a new era in the fight to protect children from online harms. A jury sided with Kaley and therefore with millions of children: Big Tech is harming kids on an industrial scale,” posted [4] Jonathan Haidt, who chronicled the effects of social media on adolescents in his book, “The Anxious Generation.”
The decisions in New Mexico and Los Angeles carry their own weight. But just as important, perhaps more so, is a Delaware court’s ruling that Meta’s insurers had no duty to defend the company, in effect, putting defense and verdict costs on Meta.
“This message is one that’s important to Kaley and her family, but it’s of very great importance to a generation of people who have been affected,” said [5] the plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Lanier. “… There are so many families who’ve been tragically hurt through the addiction of social media.”
The California case is part of a coordinated proceeding involving about 1,600 other plaintiffs, including families and school districts. The decision in his client’s case, said Lanier, “is incredibly socially important.”
[6]“For years, parents were told these harms were exaggerated, anecdotal or simply the unavoidable cost of growing up online,” said Haidt. “Today, a jury affirmed what parents have long known: Meta and YouTube were designed to exploit young people, with devastating consequences.”
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