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American Courts Are Rewriting the Rules for Big Tech and Children
Two juries found Meta liable for child harms with a $375 million penalty in New Mexico and nearly $6 million awarded in Los Angeles for negligence in platform design.
- On March 24 and March 25, 2026, juries in New Mexico and Los Angeles found Meta and Google's YouTube liable for child harm, marking a major shift in legal accountability for social media platforms.
- The New Mexico verdict rested on the state's Unfair Practices Act, as jurors determined Meta engaged in "straightforward deception" by misrepresenting platform safety while prioritizing commercial engagement over child protection.
- Internal documents exposed ignored engineer warnings, supporting the Los Angeles negligence verdict against Meta and YouTube, which assigned 70% liability to Meta and 30% to YouTube regarding harm to plaintiff KGM.
- While jury awards of $375 million and $6 million are modest compared to Meta's $22.8 billion annual net income, a bench trial beginning May 4, 2026, may mandate structural changes including real age verification.
- These verdicts set precedent for 40-plus pending state attorney general cases and federal trials later this year, though Meta and Google plan to appeal with First Amendment challenges at the center of their defense.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Nevada Current
Gettysburg ConnectionTwo verdicts in two days: How American courts are rewriting the rules for Big Tech and children
Judge Bryan Biedscheid of New Mexico could order significant changes to how Instagram and Facebook operate. (Nathan Burton/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP, Pool) Within 48 hours, the legal landscape governing social media and children shifted in ways that will take years to fully understand and verify. On March 24, 2026, a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay US$375 million for violating New Mexico’s consumer protection laws. The next day, a Los Angele…
"Don't Be Evil": Google's motto becomes a jury verdict in...
Below is my column in the New York Post on the California verdict against Google and Meta. Google's "Don't Be Evil" went from a motto to a jury verdict. The jury clearly believed that these companies were malicious and manipulative toward minors, but there remain considerable questions over the basis for the liability of social media companies. Here is the column: Google once had a motto: "Don't be evil." In its reorganization in 2015, the motto…
The Conversation
Two verdicts in two days: How American courts are rewriting the rules for Big Tech and children
The verdicts in a case against Meta and another against Meta and Google have the potential to change how social media works – and it has little to do with financial penalties.
The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Are In. Now Ask the Hard Question: Where Was the Board?
Every now and then you see one of those cases that makes you say which idiot thought it was a good idea to litigate this catastrophe rather than settle? Two juries—on opposite sides of the country—have now said something the tech industry has spent years denying.Their business model is not neutral. Which, of course, leaves the question of which executives decided to devote billions to these corrupt business models and which board members approv…
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