Safety by design

In a Los Angeles courtroom, a 20-year-old woman, identified as Kaley G.M., described a childhood dominated by social media. She began using YouTube at age six and Instagram at nine, once spending 16 hours on the platform in a single day. By age 10, she had posted 240 videos and created nine other accounts to like and comment on her own content. She testified that these platforms disrupted her sleep, education, and friendships, while exacerbating anxiety, depression, and body-image issues. Meta and Google, the companies behind Instagram and YouTube respectively, argued that Kaley's difficulties stemmed from other factors, such as bullying and a troubled home life. Her lawyers, however, focused on the platforms' design features, including autoplay, infinite feeds, and notifications engineered to maximize user engagement.

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She told jurors that the platforms disrupted her sleep, education and friendships, and worsened anxiety, depression and body-image problems.

After more than 40 hours of deliberations, the jury found both companies negligent. This verdict was historic because it emerged from the first US jury trial of its kind to hold tech giants responsible not for the material posted by users, but for the design and operation of the platforms themselves. Kaley's case is not an isolated incident. In 2024, Mark Zuckerberg faced parents in the US Senate who displayed photographs of children harmed or exploited online. He offered an apology to them. The harms extend beyond addiction, as social media provides predators direct access to children for grooming, sexual exploitation, and sextortion through seemingly innocuous interactions. Children are also exposed to cyberbullying, self-harm content, violent material, and unrealistic beauty standards, while endless scrolling displaces sleep, education, and real-world relationships.

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Meta and Google argued that her difficulties had other causes, including bullying and a troubled home life.

The danger lies not just in children encountering harmful content, but in the platforms' design, which is built to retain their attention. Despite knowing about these dangers for years, the platforms' responses, moderation, reporting tools, parental controls, and age limits, have proven insufficient. Harmful material continues to circulate, predators adapt, and children frequently bypass age restrictions. This failure is increasingly evident. In 2024, the US Federal Trade Commission found major platforms lacking adequate safeguards for children. In 2026, European regulators preliminarily determined that Meta had failed to prevent underage use of Instagram and Facebook, while Ofcom reported that 73 percent of UK children aged 11 to 17 encountered harmful online content in the preceding four weeks. Platform accountability has largely been reactive, offering promises after scandals rather than proactive protection. This track record is prompting governments toward stricter regulations. Australia became the first country to mandate platforms take reasonable steps to prevent accounts for children under 16, with rules effective since December 2025. Britain has announced similar plans.

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Her lawyers instead focused on platform design: autoplay, infinite feeds and notifications intended to keep users engaged.