For a long-time parents, schools, and doctors have attempted to address the harm that social media use has had on children. Recently juries in California and New Mexico decided that the responsibility for keeping youth safe from social media also rests on the platforms themselves.
The New Mexico jury found that Meta misled users about the safety of its platforms by enabling child predators. The California lawsuit pointed at several key features of social media that pose a threat to the mental health and well-being of children, that make them addictive. Examples: Infinite scroll (ability to continuously scroll through videos, photos, and other content without end), powerful algorithms that are designed to keep user’s attention, and notifications to draw users back in.
Meta and Google were ordered to pay a total of $6 million in damages, while Meta was order to pay $375 Million in New Mexico. Researchers and experts testified about how adolescents are particularly sensitive to social feedback, rewards, peer approval, and emotionally charged content, making them more susceptible to harmful platform effects than adults, and therefore should be offered greater protection.
