Highlights
- Social media platforms are rightfully blamed for playing a major role in the current mental health crisis plaguing Gen Z and Gen Alph. Post This
- Until these companies either implode or drastically reformulate their products, we must protect ourselves, our children, and our culture by saying no more. Post This
“What is a lost childhood worth?” asked attorney Mark Lanier in his closing arguments before jurors in an L.A. courtroom earlier this month. The verdict in that trial, issued March 25, 2026, sent waves across news outlets last week. For the first time ever, executives from Meta (Instagram) and Google (YouTube) were forced to testify in defense of allegations that their products are intentionally designed to be addictive. The jurors found both companies guilty on all charges, including negligence and a failure to adequately warn the public about the harms of their products. (The woman, known in the case by her initials, KGM, previously settled with Snap Chat and TikTok.)
Social media platforms are rightfully blamed for playing a major role in the current mental health crisis plaguing Gen Z and Gen Alph. Research from Jean Twenge and organizations like Screen Strong have directed us for years toward compelling data and anecdotes alike, urging parents to say no to addictive social media platforms. Even so, 90% of teens report using these products, with nearly half reporting that they are online “almost constantly.”
The allegations in this trial are not unique and there are literally thousands of similar cases waiting in the wings. According to Attorney Matthew Bergman, founder of the Social Media Victims Law Center, six more lawsuits are scheduled to be heard in 2026. KGM’s case is only the “tip of the spear,” says Bergman.
We’ve tried moral persuasion. It doesn’t work. These companies have been excoriated in Congress. It doesn’t work. There have been press exposés of them. It doesn’t work. The only thing that seems to work is to hit them in the pocketbook.
For years, cases such as KGM’s have been prevented from going to trial because of clever legal maneuvering by Big Tech. Social media companies have hidden behind Section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act to avoid being held liable for the content that minors were exposed to online. All the while, company profits rose and the mental health harms to teens continued to mount.
With a guilty verdict against Instagram and YouTube, this case shows that while content matters, the quip that “it’s all in how you use it” is a red herring. It is a false narrative promoted repeatedly and one that can no longer be accepted.
Minors with still developing brains are powerless to fight the sophisticated algorithms and design features such as infinite scroll, variable rewards, and autoplay. If we are honest, loads of adults have fallen victim to these features as well. There is no parental control or content filter that alters the design of addictive social media products. Just like the Ford Pinto is dangerous no matter how you drive it, social media is inherently designed to be harmful no matter how you use it. That is what this case hinged on, using internal studies from Meta such as Project MYST, which found that even parents who created rules around teen social media use and were active in their child’s usage, had little impact on whether or not their child would become addicted to the platform. In short, the only safe way for minors to use social media is to not use it at all.
Though the jury found in favor of KGM, awarding her millions of dollars in damages, the verdict does not legally compel Big Tech to alter their product design at all. Lanier’s question to the jury—“What is a lost childhood worth?” was poignant, though the next question we need to be asking is: "What is a lost generation worth?"
The only safe way for minors to use social media is to not use it at all.
Eating disorders, body-dysmorphia, unavoidable pornography exposure leading to soul-crushing addiction, constant social comparison, self-harm, suicidal ideation, lack of real-world skill development and hobbies, loneliness, depression, anxiety—this is what it is to be a child growing up with Big Tech in your pocket. How do we repair this damage? And who should be responsible for paying for it?
Interestingly, dozens of the cases being brought against Big Tech come from state Attorneys General alleging the companies have engaged in unfair or deceptive business practices. One school district, DeKalb County in Georgia, claims to have spent over $4 million to combat the negative effects of social media addiction among students. From hiring additional school counselors to spending money on phone storage lockers instead of educational materials, the school district wants Big Tech, not county taxpayers, to foot the bill.
These are the cases that need to continue to be brought forward. The individual harms are soul-crushing, and the wider effects on society will take years if not decades to recover from. To echo Bergman, articles, Congressional testimonies, research studies, former employees turned whistleblowers, even positive peer pressure, have done little to curb the predatory and dangerous practices used by Big Tech.
It is time we make Big Tech pay. Without ever charging users for creating accounts, Meta has a market cap of $1.5 trillion (at the time of this writing). It is our time and attention that has created unimaginable corporate wealth. Like a drug crime ring, every day users have stayed hooked while the dealers have used their power and wealth to avoid being held responsible. Most of us do not even realize we are strung out on the product. We just keep coming back for more with each swipe and scroll.
Until these companies either implode or drastically reformulate their products, we must protect ourselves, our children, and our culture by saying no more to addictive products. Few of us want to admit that our social media is using us, but we all know it is. We scroll longer than we want, sucked in by the powerful pull of an algorithm designed to keep us using. Culturally, we’ve shied away from confronting the truth, but for the sake of K.G.M. and thousands, if not millions of others, the time to fight back is now.
We don’t have to allow more children to be harmed while we wait for more trials to be won or more laws to change. We can, as recommended by Jonathan Haidt and others, continue to utilize the power of collective action and choose a different path forward for ourselves and our families.
Emily Harrison is a writer, advocate, and speaker on digital media and family. She is a Fellow with the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Ambassador for the Phone Free Schools Movement, and ScreenStrong, and a member of Fairplay’s Screen Time Action Network. She blogs weekly at DearChristianParent.Substack.com.
*Photo credit: Shutterstock
