Big Tech on Trial: Inside the Social Media Addiction Lawsuits

For nearly two decades, Drugwatch has been a watchdog over the industries responsible for the drugs, devices and products sold in America. That scrutiny now extends to a product Americans use every day, or even every hour.

That product is social media.

Companies behind Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat face a rising wave of lawsuits claiming those platforms are to blame for a mental health crisis felt across the nation.

The allegations go beyond the content people consume on these apps. Lawsuits say the platforms themselves were designed to fuel addiction.

“These lawsuits are product liability lawsuits, and so we’re seeing these apps being treated as a product, which is a new way of thinking about this,” Drugwatch attorney and consumer safety advocate Whitney Ray Di Bona said. “It’s not that ‘oh, they made these platforms and people are saying inappropriate things on them’ or something like that. The allegations in these lawsuits are that ‘you guys intentionally made these apps addictive. You added these features knowing that they were harming people.’”

With one trial already ending in a multimillion-dollar verdict and more planned, the social media addiction lawsuits could become among the country’s most consequential product liability litigations.

Social media has become an increasingly important part of Americans’ lives. That growth has been rapid.

According to the Pew Research Center, only 46% of American adults reported using at least one social media site as recently as 2010. By 2025, more than 70% of adults reported using Facebook.

But where the impact of social media’s rise to dominance has truly been felt is among the nation’s children. A 2023 advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General reported that a staggering 95% of youth ages 13 to 17 were using social media.

More than a third reported using social media “almost constantly.” 

Those numbers have ticked up as popular platforms have continued to evolve. Algorithm-based feeds that enable endless scrolling through new posts are now commonplace. 

“The algorithm doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep, doesn’t care what it is pushing at the kid,” Nicki Petrossi, host of the Scrolling 2 Death podcast and former social media marketing executive, told Drugwatch. “All it cares about is keeping the kid scrolling as long as possible.”

As social media has risen, so have concerns about its impact on mental health. The Pew Research Center found that one in five teens say that social media hurts mental health, with 45% of teens saying they believe they spend too much time on social media. That figure was up sharply from 36% in 2022.

Against that backdrop, families who experienced social media harm have filed lawsuits, claiming that the companies behind these platforms should be held responsible for the mental health impact they could be having on millions of children.

“There are thousands of lawsuits pending with these social media harm cases, where we have lots of minors who have been injured in different ways,” Di Bona said. “Anxiety, depression, self-harm. There are lots of different fact patterns for these cases, but I think a lot of the themes are the same.” 

The lawsuits don’t simply say that social media has contributed to mental health issues. They argue that companies like Meta and Google were aware of the harms their apps were causing and failed to warn users.

“If you go to a casino or something like that, they have little warnings everywhere about addiction and how you can get help for your gambling problem,” Di Bona said. “And on these social media apps, we don’t see that.”

School Districts Sue Over Mental Health Costs

Families and individuals are not the only ones filing social media lawsuits. More than 1,000 school districts from across the country have also filed their own cases, claiming that popular platforms have fueled a mental health crisis among the nation’s children. 

Those school districts are now seeking money to cover the costs they say they have incurred treating that crisis. 

The first trial involving a school district lawsuit was scheduled to begin in June 2026. It involved Breathitt County, a small Kentucky district. 

But before the trial could begin, every social media company named as a defendant in the case agreed to settlements to prevent the case from reaching a jury. 

Reuters reported that those companies agreed to pay Breathitt County a combined $27 million to resolve the lawsuit.

While the first case resulted in a settlement, more school district trials are planned, keeping the pressure on the companies involved. 

States Launch Investigations Into Social Media Platforms

State governments have also increased their focus on the potential impacts of social media in recent years. In 2023, a bipartisan coalition of 32 states filed a lawsuit against Meta, the maker of Facebook and Instagram, claiming that it knowingly designed harmful features with the goal of addicting children to its platforms. 

“Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement at the time. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem.”

New lawsuits continue to be filed, including one in June 2026, when Florida accused TikTok of addicting children and exposing them to inappropriate content.

In early 2026, a pivotal milestone was reached in the social media litigation. For the first time, a case involving claims that social media platforms are designed to intentionally addict users went to trial.

The lawsuit involved Kaley, a 20-year-old woman who began using numerous social media platforms at a young age and went on to develop severe mental health issues.

“She started using TikTok and Snapchat in her teen years, but YouTube at 6 and Meta and Instagram at 9,” said Petrossi, who was present for the trial.

The case was a bellwether trial, meaning its outcome could affect many other cases. Since thousands of lawsuits had been filed involving similar claims and stories, Kaley’s case would be the first chance to show what all of those lawsuits may do if they were to continue advancing through the legal process.

Two social media giants chose to exit the trial before it could begin. Both Snap and TikTok agreed to confidential settlements with Kaley in the weeks leading up to the start of the trial.

But Meta and Google, the companies behind Instagram and YouTube, opted to take the case before a jury. 

Over the weekslong trial, internal documents were presented that lawyers said showed those companies knew that they were designing dangerous products.

Petrossi recalled that at one point in the trial, a slide from an internal YouTube presentation was shown that included the text “our vision is to create a platform that is addictive.”

“You see in the internal documents, over time, they stop using the word addictive, and they call it ‘problematic use,’” she said. “They roll out tools over time to help kids and young people curb their use, and those tools were shown to be either used by a very small percentage of young people or just ineffective.”

Other internal documents showed Meta employees seemingly treating Instagram as if it were a drug and jokingly referring to themselves as “pushers.”

Meanwhile, Kaley told stories at trial of how her addiction to social media had led to severe issues. She became obsessed with the platforms, experiencing anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia.

According to Courthouse News Service, Kaley’s attorney argued that Instagram’s beauty filters convinced her that she was fat and unattractive. She couldn’t bring herself to disengage from the apps even as she experienced cyberbullying.  

Jury Delivers Landmark Social Media Verdict

After more than a week of deliberations, the jury in Kaley’s case determined that Meta and Google were responsible for her mental health issues.

In a watershed verdict, the companies were ordered to pay her a combined $6 million.

“What was proven through that trial is that the social media access worsened her mental health and caused her to become addicted to those platforms,” Petrossi said.

While $6 million alone is not a real financial hit to multibillion-dollar companies like Meta and Google, the outcome was significant given the sheer number of active cases.

In June 2026, more than 2,600 social media addiction lawsuits were active in federal court, with many others pending in state court. More cases are expected to advance to trial in the coming months, increasing pressure on the social media giants and raising the stakes of each new decision.

“It was a historic trial and really sets the precedent for these thousands of cases to follow,” Petrossi said.

One major impact of the widespread use of social media among children is the tough question parents must answer: How much is too much?

Even for the strictest parents, preventing harm from social media may not be as simple as limiting access to devices.

“We are fighting a losing battle,” Petrossi said. “If we don’t give our kids a device, they’re getting access to stuff on school-issued devices or their friends’ devices. Kids are smart. They sneak around. Even my kid, even your kid. No one’s immune.”

It’s important to keep in mind that not all children who use social media go on to develop serious mental health issues. As the Pew Research Center found, four in five teens said that they don’t believe social media has impacted their mental health. 

But one area where parents can focus is on which types of social media and features their children use.

According to the American Psychological Association, different features can be more harmful than others. For example, using social media to communicate with friends at a developmental age can actually be beneficial.

But participating in endless scrolling offered by algorithmic feeds can genuinely impact a developing brain.

Problematic behaviors include social media interfering with daily routines, schoolwork or other commitments, replacing in-person social interactions or preventing children from getting regular physical activity.

Addressing Problematic Social Media Behaviors

When warning signs appear, parents do not have to feel locked into the current situation, Petrossi said. On the latest episode of the Drugwatch Health on Trial podcast series, she explained that parents can reduce children’s access to social media by setting stricter boundaries, limiting screen time, removing certain apps or replacing a smartphone with a device that has stronger parental controls or a smartwatch.

“You can take a step back,” Petrossi said. “I am always told by psychologists that it’s going to be hard for sure, but their brains have this neuroplasticity. They will be able to recover and rebuild the ability to be focused.”

The transition may not be easy, she acknowledged, but she believes the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term challenges.

“It’s going to take time to wean them off of that, but you will not regret it,” Petrossi said. “No one ever regrets going back or just delaying access. Just know that you can make changes even if they’re small, and then, I feel like small changes can grow into larger changes over time.”

The thousands of pending social media lawsuits, brought by families, school districts and states, could spur real change if more verdicts are awarded in trials similar to Kaley’s.

But social media addiction cases are just one part of a larger conversation now taking place over online safety and how children are impacted.

Meta was ordered in March 2026 to pay $375 million at the conclusion of a trial over claims that its platforms had exposed children to sexually explicit material and allowed them to be contacted by child predators. That case had been brought by the state of New Mexico.

Popular online gaming platform Roblox is similarly under fire, facing a growing number of lawsuits claiming that it failed to implement proper safeguards to prevent its young users from coming into contact with predators.

In addition to families, many states are now taking legal action against Roblox. The company has already agreed to settlements with Alabama, Nevada and West Virginia that total more than $30 million.

For addiction lawsuits, multiple social media giants have now agreed to settlements in individual cases before they advance to trial. The next major case is expected to go before a jury in July 2026. YouTube agreed to a settlement in that case just last week.

Still, a global settlement or changes to platform safety have not yet taken place. But following Kaley’s verdict and with more trials anticipated soon, the pressure on these companies may only mount.

“This isn’t just about Kaley,” Petrossi said. “This is about the experience of really millions of young people on these platforms.”