A jury has reached a verdict in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that questioned whether the tech giants should be held responsible for harm to children using their respective platforms.<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A jury found both Meta and YouTube liable in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit<\/a> that aimed to hold social media platforms responsible for harm to children using their services, awarding the plaintiff $3 million in damages.<\/p>\n After more than 40 hours of deliberation across nine days, California jurors decided Meta and YouTube were negligent in the design or operation of their platforms. The jury also decided each company\u2019s negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff, a 20-year-old woman<\/a> who says her use of social media as a child addicted her to the technology and exacerbated her mental health struggles. This is the second verdict<\/a> to come in this week against Meta after a jury in New Mexico determined the company harms children\u2019s mental health and safety, violating state law.<\/p>\n The multimillion-dollar verdict will only grow since the jury decided the companies acted with malice, oppression or fraud. This means they will hear new evidence shortly and head back into the deliberation room to decide on punitive damages. <\/p>\n Both Meta and YouTube issued statements disagreeing with the verdict and vowing to explore their legal options, which includes appeals. <\/p>\n Google spokesman Jose Casta\u00f1eda also said in their statement that the case \u201cmisunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.\u201d<\/p>\n The jury determined that Meta and YouTube knew that the design, or operation, of their platforms was dangerous or was likely to be dangerous when used by a minor. They also said the platforms failed to adequately warn of the danger, which further contributed to the plaintiff\u2019s harm. <\/p>\n Only nine out of the 12 jurors had to agree on each claim against each defendant. Two jurors consistently disagreed with the other 10 on whether the technology companies should be held liable. <\/p>\n The jurors also decided Meta held more responsibility for harm to the plaintiff, who has been identified by her initials KGM. The jury said Meta shouldered 70% of the responsibility while YouTube bore the remaining 30%. <\/p>\n Meta and Google-owned YouTube were the two remaining defendants in the case after TikTok and Snap each settled<\/a> before the trial began. <\/p>\n Jurors listened to about a month of lawyers\u2019 arguments, testimony and evidence, and they heard from the KGM, or Kaley as her lawyers have called her during the trial, as well as Meta leaders Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> and Adam Mosseri<\/a>. YouTube\u2019s CEO, Neal Mohan, was not called in to testify. <\/p>\n Kaley says she began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9 and told the jury she was on social media \u201call day long\u201d<\/a> as a child.<\/p>\n Lawyers representing Kaley, led by Mark Lanier, were tasked with proving that the respective defendants\u2019 negligence was a substantial factor in causing Kaley\u2019s harm. They pointed to specific design features they said were designed to \u201chook\u201d young users, like the \u201cinfinite\u201d nature of feeds that allowed for an endless supply of content, autoplay features, and even notifications. <\/p>\n