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Meta and YouTube Designed Addictive Products That Harmed Young People, Jury Finds
Meta and YouTube have been found liable for negligence for deliberately designing addictive products that hooked a young user and led to her being harmed, a jury ruled on Wednesday. The tech companies have also been found liable for failure to warn. The jury awarded the plaintiffs in the case compensatory damages of $3m.
It took nearly nine days of deliberations for the Los Angeles jury to reach its verdict. Jurors also awarded punitive damages, which will be decided during the next phase of the trial. The lawsuit over social media’s alleged harm to young people was the first of its kind to go to trial.
Over the course of the six-week trial, which took place in Los Angeles superior court, jurors heard from top executives at Meta and YouTube, whistleblowers, expert witnesses on social media and addiction, and a 20-year-old woman at the center of the lawsuit, who has gone by the initials KGM for court proceedings.
Meta Ordered to Pay $375 Million After Being Found Liable in Child Exploitation Case
A New Mexico jury on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users. This is the first jury trial to find Meta liable for acts committed on its platform.
“The jury’s verdict is a historic victory for every child and family who has paid the price for Meta’s choice to put profits over kids’ safety,” said New Mexico’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez. “Meta executives knew their products harmed children, disregarded warnings from their own employees, and lied to the public about what they knew. Today the jury joined families, educators, and child safety experts in saying enough is enough.”
The lawsuit was brought by Torrez’s office in December 2023. The lawsuit followed a two-year Guardian investigation published in April of that year revealing how Facebook and Instagram had become marketplaces for child sex trafficking. That investigation was cited several times in the complaint.
Gov. Scott Signs Bill to Allow Vermont to Make Its Own Vaccine Recommendations
MyChamplainValley.com reported:
Vermont is now making its own choices on which vaccines to recommend — though the bill doesn’t mandate any vaccinations. On Tuesday, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed into law a bill, H. 545, that will let the Department of Health decide on its own officially recommended vaccine schedule — rather than having to follow the guidelines of the federal CDC.
“We’ve seen the value in using science and data when making decisions about the health of Vermonters,” said Scott. “…. Getting vaccinated is the best way for us to protect ourselves and others, and this bill helps make sure vaccines remain accessible and affordable in Vermont.”
Among other provisions, the bill lets Vermont health officials buy immunizations from vendors other than the CDC — depending on which offers the lowest cost — and lets the state health commissioner consider recommendations from groups including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, and others in creating the state’s recommended vaccine schedule.
Tragic Caffeine Death of College Student, 21, Fuels Parents’ Battle for Energy Drink Reform
Sarah Katz wanted to ride a roller coaster. In a high school essay, she once recalled a time in second grade when her mom took her to Six Flags in her native New Jersey. She wrote about how desperately she’d wanted to ride “the biggest and scariest” coaster in the park, how she wanted to feel “what it would be like to fly.”
Sarah’s heart condition mandated she go through life slightly and on alert. She never did get to ride the roller coaster, or play team sports. She was technically allowed to drink coffee, but she didn’t. Instead, she took her daily nadolol, a beta blocker to keep her heart rate low, and steered clear of the only other thing her doctors told her to avoid: energy drinks. Her parents and their lawyers insist she never veered from that advice. At least, not on purpose. But then, in 2022, she died at age 21.
In the aftermath, Sarah’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Panera Bread, alleging that the restaurant chain’s 30-ounce Charged Lemonade induced the cardiac arrhythmia that ultimately killed their daughter. Hers was the first of several suits related to the drink that have since been filed against Panera. Today, Sarah’s parents have also taken their advocacy to Capitol Hill.
Hundreds of UK Teenagers to Trial Six-Week Social Media Curbs for Major Study
Hundreds of UK teenagers will trial social media bans, digital curfews and time limits on apps under a government pilot, which will run alongside a consultation to decide whether the UK should ban access to social media for the under-16s. During the test, led by the UK government, a proportion of 300 teens across all four nations of the UK will have their social apps disabled, “mimicking the enforcement of a social media ban at home”.
Another group will have access blocked overnight, or capped to one hour’s use on the most popular social media apps for teenagers, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Others will experience no restrictions, so the test group’s experiences can be compared. The pilots will last six weeks and test how different restrictions affect young people’s day-to-day lives.
The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said it was about “testing different options in the real world”. “These pilots will give us the evidence we need to take the next steps, informed by the experiences of families themselves,” she said. Nearly 30,000 parents and children have responded to the government’s digital wellbeing consultation, which closes on 26 May.
