Meta, YouTube found liable in landmark court case over social media addiction

The conversation around the harmful effects of social media for children causes heated debate, no matter which country you may be living in.

Parents around the world are aware of the dangers lurking on these platforms, so easily accessible on any type of screen.

Now the argument has been catapulted to a whole new level, with a landmark lawsuit in the US.

A California court found Meta and YouTube liable when a 20-year-old woman sued them over her childhood addiction to social media.

YouTube owner Google and Meta, whose platforms include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, were ordered to pay $6 million (over R100 million) in damages.

The jury found that Meta and Google intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the young woman's mental health.

RELATED: YouTube exec says goal was viewer value not addiction

It's reported that Meta will be expected to carry 70% of the damages awarded to "Kaley", and Google the remaining 30%.

The plaintiff testified that she'd been addicted to Meta products since the age of six, and YouTube since she was ten, says tech expert Siphumelele Zondi.

"The lawsuit is basically around how these platforms are engineered to get particularly young people addicted... The woman was also supported by a number of lobby groups who testified on her behalf."

Grootes, a parent himself, tries to find a radio-friendly word to describe this and has to settle on "evil".

"What I find so staggering about this, is that you had adults in a room at Meta and at Google, trying to make very young children keep watching, so trying deliberately to keep my children and yours addicted to their services!"

Zondi says they can always say they have age restrictions, often set at 13 on these platforms, but as we all know that is certainly not foolproof.

"There is awareness that yes, in theory you might say there's an age restriction to block them if they say they're younger than 13, but who checks that! Users can put in any date of birth, they could have friends at school that help them with these accounts and suddenly they're hooked."

The fact that kids are so often away from a parent or caregiver's observant eyes, also makes it impossible for these people to take full responsibility in the bigger picture, he says.

RELATED: Parents play crucial role in preventing childhood internet addiction, new study confirms

"How many parents can say that they know their children don't have access to a device when they're not around - just think of being at school where another child brought in the device, or secretly logging onto a computer somewhere or in the computer lab with a made-up age account and secretly looking at YouTube."

In another case involving kids and social media, Meta was ordered just this month to pay $375m for misleading users over the safety of its platforms for children.

Scroll up to the audio player to hear more about the arguments in the landmark social media lawsuit