(AURN News) — A Los Angeles jury has found Meta and Google’s YouTube negligent for designing apps that harm children, awarding $3 million in compensatory damages, with punitive damages still to be determined.
The case centers on a now 20-year-old woman named Kaley, who says she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube as a child, leading to depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia.
Meta was held responsible for 70% of the damages, while YouTube was responsible for the remaining 30%. What appeared to seal the case for the jury was the paper trail.
Internal Meta documents showed executives actively targeting children as young as 11, two years before the platform’s stated minimum age. One memo read, “If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens.”
Both companies say they will appeal, but with thousands of similar cases pending, the verdict may be the beginning of a broader legal reckoning for Silicon Valley.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
