A 20-year-old woman in California who sued Meta and Google, claiming the tech giants had created a harmful and addictive product for kids, won her lawsuit on Wednesday. The jury has awarded the woman, identified as Kaley G.M., $3 million according to the Wall Street Journal.
The woman said that Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube had contributed to mental health problems she had as a child, including anxiety, depression, and body dysmorphia. Meta has previously argued that she had mental health issues that predated her exposure to Instagram.
“We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options,” a Meta spokesperson told Gizmodo in an email Wednesday.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was forced to take the stand in Los Angeles Superior Court where he was asked if Meta intentionally tried to hook kids on its products. The woman who said she was harmed by Instagram joined as a child and her lawyers presented internal slides from 2015 that showed over 4 million Instagram users in the U.S. were under the age of 13. Instagram didn’t start asking for a user’s age until 2019.
The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, also testified at the trial and got headlines for saying that he didn’t think 16 hours of Instagram use per day should be considered an addiction. Mosseri preferred the term “problematic” use.
The case was closely watched since there are over 2,000 individual cases against Meta involving child safety currently pending in federal court. Meta lost a case Tuesday in New Mexico where the tech company was found liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children. Meta has been ordered to pay $375 million in civil penalties in New Mexico, lower than the $2 billion the state had asked for.
Meta may view two facts in Wednesday’s ruling as wins since the jurors were not unanimous and the compensatory damages were a relatively modest $3 million, a drop in the bucket for a company that brings in $200 billion in revenue annually. Meta was ordered Wednesday to pay 70% of the damages with YouTube paying 30%, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Today’s verdict is a historic moment — for Kaley and for the thousands of children and families who have been waiting for this day,” attorneys for the plaintiff told CNBC in a statement Wednesday.
“She showed extraordinary courage bringing this case and telling her story in open court. A jury of Kaley’s peers heard the evidence, heard what Meta and YouTube knew and when they knew it, and held them accountable for their conduct.”
This is a breaking story and this article will be updated.
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