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Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial
A Los Angeles jury has handed down an unprecedented win for a young woman who sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media.
Jurors found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the 20-year old’s mental health.
The woman, known as Kaley, was awarded $6m (£4.5m) in damages, a result likely to have implications for hundreds of similar cases now winding their way through US courts.
Meta and Google said separately that they disagreed with the verdict and would both appeal. Meta said: “Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.
“We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”
A spokesperson for Google said: “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”
Jurors found that Kaley should receive $3m in compensatory damages and an additional $3m punitive damages, because they determined Meta and Google “acted with malice, oppression, or fraud” in the way the companies operated their platforms.
Meta will be expected to shoulder 70% of Kaley’s damages award, with Google the remaining 30%.
Parents of other children, who are not part of Kaley’s lawsuit but claim they also were harmed by social media, were outside the courthouse on Wednesday, as they had been many days throughout the five-week trial.
When the verdict came through, parents like Amy Neville were seen celebrating, and hugging other parents and supporters who had been waiting for a decision.
The LA verdict came a day after a jury in New Mexico found Meta liable for the way in which its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators.
Mike Proulx, a research director for Forrester, said the back-to-back verdicts underline a “breaking point” between social media companies and the public.
In recent months, countries such as Australia have imposed restrictions for children to stop or limit their use of social media. The UK is currently running a pilot program to see how a ban of social media for people aged under 16 may work.
“Negative sentiment toward social media has been building for years, and now it’s finally boiled over,” Proulx said.
During his appearance before the jury in February, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chairman and chief executive, relied on his company’s longstanding policy of not allowing users under the age of 13 on any of its platforms.
When presented with internal research and documents showing that Meta knew young children were, in fact, using its platforms, Zuckerberg said he “always wished” for faster progress to identify users under 13. He insisted the company had reached the “right place over time”.
While Google, as the owner of video-sharing site YouTube, was also a defendant in the case, most of the trial proceedings focused on Instagram and Meta.
Snap and TikTok were also initially defendants, but both companies reached undisclosed settlements with Kaley prior to trial.
As for Kaley’s lawyers, they argued that Meta and YouTube had built “addiction machines” and failed in their responsibility to prevent children from accessing their platforms.
Kaley said she started using Instagram aged nine and YouTube aged six, and encountered no attempts to block her because of her age.
“I stopped engaging with family because I was spending all my time on social media,” Kaley said during her testimony.
Kaley said she was 10-years-old when she started having feelings of anxiety and depression, disorders for which she would be diagnosed years later by a therapist.
She also started to obsess about her physical appearance and began using Instagram filters that would change the way she looked – making her nose smaller and her eyes bigger – almost as soon as she started using the platform as a child.
Kaley has since been diagnosed with body dysmorphia, a condition which causes people to worry excessively about their physical appearance and prevents them from seeing themselves as others do.
Her lawyers argued that features of Instagram, like infinite scroll, were designed to be addictive.
Meta’s growth goals were aimed at getting young people to use its platforms, Kaley’s lawyers said.
Using testimony from experts and former Meta executives, they argued the company wanted young users because they were more likely to stick with its platforms for longer stretches of time.
When lawyers for Kaley told Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, that her longest single day of use of the platform stretched to 16 hours, he denied that it was evidence of an addiction.
Instead, he called a teenager spending most hours of the day on Instagram “problematic”.
Lawyers for Kaley said Wednesday that the jury’s verdict “sends an unmistakable message that no company is above accountability when it comes to our children.”
Another case against Meta and other social media platforms over their alleged harms to children is poised to begin in June in California federal court.
[BBC]
Three people have died after a helicopter crashed off the Hawaiian island of Kauai, police said.
The helicopter was carrying one pilot and four passengers, police said in a statement. Two survivors were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Police said the helicopter was operated by Airborne Aviation, a company whose website advertises “a doors-off thrill seekers adventure tour” of the picturesque island’s waterfalls, canyons, and beaches.
The US Coast Guard said the helicopter crash-landed about 100 yards off Kalalau beach. Authorities have not yet identified the victims.
Police said they responded to an alert of the crash at around 15:45 local time (01:45 GMT), along with the Coast Guard and fire department.
Kauai’s Mayor Derek Kawakami praised the recovery effort, telling local media: “Here on Kaua’i, whenever somebody puts their feet on our soil, they are one of ours.
“We treat them like one of ours, they are a part of our family, and our first responders respond with that spirit in mind.”
Andrew Williams, search and rescue mission co-ordinator for the Coast Guard in Honolulu, said: “We are greatly saddened by the loss of three lives in this helicopter crash and thinking of those individuals’ families and friends.”
Helicopter tours are a popular way for visitors to tour the island, which is where the blockbuster film Jurassic Park was shot.
Airborne Aviation’s 50-minute tour of the island offered a maximum of four passengers and costs $348 (£262) per passenger, according to its website.
BBC News has contacted Airborne Aviation for comment.
The incident is the latest fatal crash in Kauai involving a tour helicopter. Three people were killed when a helicopter operated by a different tour company crashed in July 2024.
The 2024 crash was caused by “an encounter with turbulence due to downdraft winds that resulted in mast bumping and an inflight breakup”, a report by the National Transportation Safety Board said.
[BBC]
Tiger Woods has been charged with driving under the influence after rolling his car in a crash in Florida, police have confirmed.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office said the 15-time major champion was also charged with property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test.
Woods, 50, rolled his Land Rover after clipping a pressure cleaner truck while trying to overtake it at “a high rate of speed”, according to Sheriff John Budensiek.
The golfer, who had to crawl out of the passenger door of his vehicle, passed a breathalyser test after the crash but refused a urine test.
No-one sustained any injuries in the incident which took place on Beach Road in Jupiter Island just before 14:00 local time on Friday (about 19:00 GMT).
Sheriff Budensiek told a news conference: “The DUI investigators came to the scene and Mr Woods did exemplify signs of impairment.
“They did several tests on him. He did explain the injuries and surgeries that he’s had and we did take that into account, but they did some in-depth roadside tests.
“When it was determined, he was placed under arrest and taken to the Martin County jail.
“At the Martin County jail, and even on scene, we were really not suspicious of alcohol being involved in this case and that proved to be true.
“Mr Woods did a breathalyser test with triple zeros, but when it came time for us to ask for a urinary analysis test, he refused.”
Budensiek also said Woods had been “co-operative but was trying not to incriminate himself”.
“He has a right to refuse that test,” added the sheriff. “There is a statute which he will be charged with for refusing to take that test, but we will never get definitive results as to what he was impaired on at the time of the crash.”
US president Donald Trump was asked about the crash on Friday, saying: “I feel so badly. [Woods has] got some difficulty. There was an accident. That’s all I know.
“He’s a very close friend of mine, he’s an amazing person, an amazing man.”
Sheriff Budensiek said Woods would remain in jail for eight hours then be released on bond. The charges are misdemeanours, not felonies.
The BBC has contacted the golfer’s representatives for comment.
This is not the first time Woods has been involved in a car accident – he has played a limited schedule since the serious crash in 2021 that left him with extensive injuries and fortunate to be alive.
In 2017 police officers also found him slumped at the wheel of his parked Mercedes-Benz not far from his Florida home.
A toxicology report found Woods had several legal medications in his system and marijuana’s active ingredient, and he was sentenced to a year’s probation after pleading guilty to reckless driving.
In 2009 Woods hit a fire hydrant, a tree, and several hedges in a bizarre collision outside his home.
The incident sparked accusations of extramarital affairs which led to the end of his seven-year marriage and the loss of lucrative sponsorship deals.
[BBC]
Latest News
Heat Index at Caution Level in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district
Warm Weather Advisory
Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre of the Department of Meteorology
Issued at 3.30 p.m. on 27 March 2026, valid for 28 March 2026.
The ‘Heat index‘, the temperature felt on human body is likely to increase up to ‘Caution level’ at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Eastern, North-western, Northern and North-central provinces and in Monaragala district
The Heat Index Forecast is calculated by using relative humidity and maximum temperature and this is the condition that is felt on your body. This is not the forecast of maximum temperature. It is generated by the Department of Meteorology for the next day period and prepared by using global numerical weather prediction model data.
Effect of the heat index on human body is mentioned in the above table and it is prepared on the advice of the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services.
ACTION REQUIRED
Job sites: Stay hydrated and takes breaks in the shade as often as possible.
Indoors: Check up on the elderly and the sick.
Vehicles: Never leave children unattended.
Outdoors: Limit strenuous outdoor activities, find shade and stay hydrated.
Dress: Wear lightweight and white or light-colored clothing.
Note:
In addition, please refer to advisories issued by the Disaster Preparedness & Response Division, Ministry of Health in this regard as well. For further clarifications please contact 011-7446491.
Courtesy call by the Heads of Mission- Designate on Prime Minister
Three dead after helicopter crash in Hawaii
Woods charged with driving under influence after crash
Showers may occur at a few places in the Rathnapura, Kaluthara, Galle, and Matara districts during the evening or night
SC finds Keheliya, others, guilty of violating FRs of public through corrupt drug procurement deal
Sajith nudges govt. to follow India’s example in giving relief to consumers by slashing taxes on fuel
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