Ammon News - Parents and campaign groups seeking tighter restrictions on social media have welcomed a Los Angeles jury handing down an unprecedented win for a young woman who sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media.

Jurors found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the 20-year old's mental health.

The woman, known as Kaley, was awarded $6m (£4.5m) in damages, a result likely to have implications for hundreds of similar cases now winding their way through US courts.

Meta and Google said they disagreed with the verdict and intended to appeal

Meta said: "Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.

"We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online."

A spokesperson for Google said: "This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site."

But speaking to BBC Breakfast, Ellen Roome, who is herself suing TikTok after the death of her son, said the case was an "enough was enough" moment.

"How many more children are going to be harmed and potentially die from these platforms?" she asked.

"It's been proved it's not safe - and social media companies need to fix it."

'Malice, oppression or fraud'
Jurors found that Kaley should receive $3m in compensatory damages and an additional $3m punitive damages, because they determined Meta and Google "acted with malice, oppression, or fraud" in the way the companies operated their platforms.

Meta will be expected to shoulder 70% of Kaley's damages award, with Google the remaining 30%.

BBC