Meta Platforms, TikTok and YouTube will face courtroom scrutiny this week over allegations that their platforms are fuelling a youth mental health crisis, as a debate about kids’ screen time enters a new phase.
The trial in California is a test case for thousands of other lawsuits seeking damages for social media harms, in a legal onslaught that could erode Big Tech’s longstanding legal defence.
The plaintiff is a 19-year-old woman from California, identified as KGM, who says she became addicted to the companies’ platforms at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design, according to court filings. She alleges the apps fuelled her depression and suicidal thoughts and is seeking to hold the companies liable. Jury selection in the case begins on Tuesday.
Her lawsuit is the first of several cases expected to go to trial this year that centre on what the plaintiffs call “social media addiction” among children. It will be the first time the tech giants must defend themselves at trial over alleged harm caused by their products, the plaintiff’s attorney Matthew Bergman said.
A factor in the case is a federal law that largely exempts platforms such as Instagram and TikTok from legal liability for the material their users post. The tech companies have argued the law shields them in KGM’s case.
A verdict against the social media companies would put a crack in that defence, which has protected them from lawsuits for decades. It would show that juries are willing to hold the platforms themselves liable. The issue is likely to reach the US supreme court, whether through KGM’s case or another, Bergman said. “We are writing on a legal tabula rasa,” he said.
Zuckerberg to testify
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta Platforms, is expected to take the witness stand. The company will argue in court that its products did not lead to KGM’s mental health challenges, Meta’s lawyers said ahead of the trial.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was also expected to testify, as his company was named a defendant in the lawsuit. Snap agreed on 20 January to settle KGM’s lawsuit. A company spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of the deal.
Read: Australia has banned kids from social media. Should South Africa follow suit?
YouTube will argue that the company’s platforms are fundamentally different from social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, and should not be lumped together in court, a YouTube executive said ahead of the trial. TikTok declined to comment about the company’s planned arguments in court.
As the trial begins, the same tech companies are mounting a US-wide effort to convince critics that their products are safe for teens. They’ve launched tools they say give parents more control over how their kids use the platforms and have spent millions of dollars promoting those features.
Since at least 2018, Meta has sponsored parent workshops about teen online safety at dozens of high schools across the US. The company hosted one of those workshops, dubbed Screen Smart, in 2024 in Los Angeles, alongside National PTA President Yvonne Johnson and Meta safety chief Antigone Davis. National PTA is a non-profit that advocates for child welfare.
TikTok also sponsored similar gatherings led by 100 local and regional PTAs, calling it Create with Kindness, according to the company’s website. The programme included tutorials on TikTok’s features for parents, including the option to limit screen time at night, according to the curriculum.
YouTube’s parent company, Google, in recent years has turned to Girl Scouts to convince the public it is invested in kids’ online safety. Girls can earn a patch, which features Google’s logo, to affix to their uniform after completing lessons about strong passwords, being kind online and digital privacy, according to the Girl Scouts website.
The companies have also hired lawyers who have represented corporations in high-profile litigation involving addiction.
Meta has hired Covington & Burling attorneys who represented McKesson in sprawling litigation related to the opioid epidemic, according to public biographies of the attorneys. TikTok’s counsel, meanwhile, represented Activision Blizzard and Microsoft in a dispute about videogame design and addiction.
“These companies are using every lever of influence that you can imagine,” said Julie Scelfo, founder of Mothers Against Media Addiction, a group that supports smartphone bans in schools. “It can be very confusing for parents who to trust.” — Courtney Rozen, with Jody Godoy, (c) 2026 Reuters
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