SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The first jury verdict in a series of social media child safety trials this year is in — and it's not looking good for Meta. A jury in New Mexico found on Tuesday that the social media giant's platforms are harmful to children’s mental health and imposed a $375 million penalty.
While the fine is a tiny fraction of Meta's $201 billion revenue in 2025, the verdict illustrates a growing shift in the public's perception of social media companies and their responsibilities in keeping young people safe on their platforms.
For years, social media companies have disputed allegations that they harm children’s mental health through deliberate design choices that addict kids to their platforms and fail to protect them from sexual predators and dangerous content. This year, several state and federal court cases are heading to trial, and while the details may vary, they all seek to hold companies responsible for what happens on their platforms.
The lawsuits have come from school districts, local, state and the federal government as well as thousands of families. The courtroom showdowns are the culmination of years of scrutiny of the platforms over child safety, and whether deliberate design choices make them addictive and serve up content that leads to depression, eating disorders or suicide.
The outcomes could challenge the companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms. They could also be costly in the form of legal fees and settlements. And they could force the companies to change how they operate, potentially losing users and advertising dollars.
Here's a look at the major social media harms cases in the United States.
A team led by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who sued Meta in 2023, built their case by posing as children on social media, then documenting sexual solicitations they received as well as Meta’s response.
Torrez wants Meta to implement more effective age verification and do more to remove bad actors from its platforms.
On Tuesday, a jury found Meta to be in violation of state consumer protection law. It found thousands of violations, each counting separately toward a penalty of $375 million.
The landmark decision came after a nearly seven-week trial. Jurors sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — prioritized profits over safety. The jury determined Meta violated parts of the state’s Unfair Practices Act on accusations the company hid what it knew about about the dangers of child sexual exploitation on its platforms and impacts on child mental health.
The jury agreed with allegations that Meta made false or misleading statements and also agreed that Meta engaged in “unconscionable” trade practices that unfairly took advantage of the vulnerabilities of and inexperience of children.
Meta said it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal.
“We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and are clear about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors or harmful content. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online,” the company said in a statement.
The trial kicked off in early February. In his opening statement, prosecuting attorney Donald Migliori said Meta has misrepresented the safety of its platforms, choosing to engineer its algorithms to keep young people online while knowing that children are at risk of sexual exploitation.
Jurors are still deliberating in a landmark social media case that seeks to hold tech companies responsible for harms to children. The plaintiff has argued the platform design features of the two remaining defendants, Meta and YouTube, were designed to be addictive, especially for young users. TikTok and Snap each settled before the trial began.
At the core of the Los Angeles case is a 20-year-old identified by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits will play out. KGM, or Kaley, as her lawyers have called her, and a handful of other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury.
“This is a monumental inflection point in social media,” said Matthew Bergman of the Seattle-based Social Media Victims Law Center, which represents more than 1,000 plaintiffs in lawsuits against social media companies. “When we started doing this four years ago, no one said we'd ever get to trial. And here we are trying our case in front of a fair and impartial jury.”
A trial scheduled for this summer pits school districts against social media companies before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California. Called a multidistrict litigation, it names six public school districts from around the country as the bellwethers.
Jayne Conroy, a lawyer on plaintiffs’ trial team, was also an attorney for plaintiffs seeking to hold pharmaceutical companies responsible for the opioid epidemic. She said the cornerstone of both cases is the same: addiction.
“With the social media case, we're focused primarily on children and their developing brains and how addiction is such a threat to their well-being and … the harms that are caused to children — how much they're watching and what kind of targeting is being done,” she said.
The medical science, she added, “is not really all that different, surprisingly, from an opioid or a heroin addiction. We are all talking about the dopamine reaction.”
Both the social media and the opioid cases claim negligence on the part of the defendants.
“What we were able to prove in the opioid cases is the manufacturers, the distributors, the pharmacies, they knew about the risks, they downplayed them, they oversupplied, and people died,” Conroy said. “Here, it is very much the same thing. These companies knew about the risks, they have disregarded the risks, they doubled down to get profits from advertisers over the safety of kids. And kids were harmed and kids died.”
Social media companies have disputed that their products are addictive. During questioning by the plaintiff’s lawyer during the Los Angeles trial, Zuckerberg said he still agrees with a previous statement he made that the existing body of scientific work has not proven that social media causes mental health harms.
Some researchers do indeed question whether addiction is the appropriate term to describe heavy use of social media. Social media addiction is not recognized as an official disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the authority within the psychiatric community.
But the companies face increasing pushback on the issue of social media's effects on children's mental health, not only among academics but also parents, schools and lawmakers.
“While Meta has doubled down in this area to address mounting concerns by rolling out safety features, several recent reports suggest that the company continues to aggressively prioritize teens as a user base and doesn’t always adhere to its own rules,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.
With appeals and any settlement discussions, the cases against social media companies could take years to resolve. And unlike in Europe and Australia, tech regulation in the United States is moving at a glacial pace.
Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid talks with Linda Singer, an attorney representing the plaintiff, and attorney Kevin Huff, representing Meta, during the closing arguments, Monday, March 23, 2026, in state court, in Santa Fe, N.M., in a trial where the social media conglomerate is accused of misleading its users about how safe its platforms are for children. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool)
Linda Singer, an attorney representing the plaintiff, looks back at her co-counsel after making closing arguments, Monday, March 23, 2026, in state court, in Santa Fe, N.M., in a trial where the social media conglomerate is accused of misleading its users about how safe its platforms are for children. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool)
Linda Singer, an attorney representing the plaintiff, left, shakes hands with attorney Kevin Huff, representing Meta, after they made closing arguments, Monday, March 23, 2026, in state court, in Santa Fe, N.M., in a trial where the social media conglomerate is accused of misleading its users about how safe its platforms are for children. (Eddie Moore/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, Pool)
DETROIT (AP) — Carter Yakemchuk scored a second-period goal and also had an assist in his NHL debut as the streaking Ottawa Senators edged the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Yakemchuk, the No. 7 overall pick of the 2024 draft, had been playing for the American Hockey League’s Belleville Senators. He was called up earlier in the day with defensemen Thomas Chabot, Dennis Gilbert, Nick Jensen, Jake Sanderson and Lassi Thomson sidelined by injuries.
Yakemchuk, a 20-year-old defenseman from Alberta, had 10 goals in 50 games with Belleville.
Brady Tkachuk scored his 20th goal of the season for the Senators, who have won four straight and nine of their last 11 games. Lars Eller scored the other goal for the Senators. Linus Ullmark made 32 saves as the Senators continued their late push for an Eastern Conference playoff berth.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, BRUINS 2
BOSTON (AP) — Matthew Knies scored a pair of goals and Toronto snapped a three-game losing streak with a victory over Boston.
Max Domi and William Nylander also scored for the Maple Leafs and John Tavares had three assists as Toronto outshot Boston 35-20 and avoided a three-game season sweep in the Original Six rivalry. Anthony Stolarz finished with 18 saves.
Elias Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy scored for Boston, which still holds the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference standings. Jeremy Swayman had 31 saves for the Bruins, who lost at home for just the second time in their last 16 games.
CANADIENS 5, HURRICANES 2
MONTREAL (AP) — Cole Caufield scored his 44th goal of the season and Jakub Dobes made 41 saves as Montreal held off Carolina.
Juraj Slafkovsky and Ivan Demidov had a goal and an assist each, and Oliver Kapanen also scored as Montreal erased a two-goal deficit for its second consecutive win.
Jake Evans buried an empty-net goal with 1 minute left in regulation and Caufield added an assist for a two-point night.
Nikolaj Ehlers and Jordan Staal scored for Eastern Conference-leading Carolina, which lost for the first time in four games.
PANTHERS 5, KRAKEN 4, SO
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Florida gave up a three-goal, third-period lead but recovered for a shootout win over Seattle on Vinnie Hinostroza’s goal.
The Panthers led 4-1 on Noah Gregor’s goal with 7:39 to play, but Seattle’s Matty Beniers, Jordan Eberle and Bobby McMann scored in a span of 2:21 to force overtime. Eberle and McMann scored just 14 seconds apart.
Seattle, which has lost eight of 10, has not won since beating the Panthers 6-2 at home on March 15.
Nolan Foote, Eetu Luostarinen and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers with Sergei Bobrovsky making 22 saves.
Ryker Evans also scored a third-period goal for Seattle and Joey Daccord had 20 saves.
BLACKHAWKS 4, ISLANDERS 3
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Anton Frondell had an assist in his NHL debut, Nick Lardis and Frank Nazar each had a goal and an assist and Chicago defeated the New York.
Ilya Mikheyev and Tyler Bertuzzi also had goals for the Blackhawks, who scored four straight goals and snapped a two-game skid. Arvid Soderblom made 44 saves.
Anders Lee, Simon Holmstrom and Calum Ritchie scored for the Islanders, who lost for the third time in four games. David Rittich allowed three goals on 12 shots before being replaced by Ilya Sorokin, who made 11 saves.
BLUE JACKETS 3, FLYERS 2
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Zach Werenski continued his torrid scoring pace with a goal and an assist as Columbus defeated Philadelphia.
Columbus scored a pair of goals 1:44 apart to start the second period. The Blue Jackets outshot the Flyers 6-0 in the opening three minutes of the period.
Mathieu Olivier scored the first goal 44 seconds into the second period, taking a pass from Werenski on a 3-on-2 rush and snapping a shot over the glove of Philadelphia goalie Dan Vladar to tie the score 1-1.
On his next shift, Werenski came out of the corner and worked his way into the high slot. He took a pass from Damon Severson and beat Vladar with a snapshot.
Werenski now has 77 points this season, second-most among NHL defensemen.
AVALANCHE 6, PENGUINS 2
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Martin Necas scored twice, Nathan MacKinnon poured in his NHL-leading 46th goal and the Colorado breezed past the Pittsburgh.
Necas, Sam Malinski and Parker Kelly scored within a 1:55 span late in the first period to break it open as the Avalanche atoned for one-sided loss to the Penguins last week in Denver by returning the favor in Pittsburgh. Cale Makar picked up the assist on Necas’ first goal, boosting his career point total to 499. Ross Colton scored an empty-netter late.
Scott Wedgewood stopped 27 shots for the NHL-leading Avalanche, who have won the first three games of a four-game road swing that finishes up in Winnipeg on Thursday.
Egor Chinakov and Rickard Rakell scored for Pittsburgh. Kris Letang picked up the secondary assist to become the 21st defenseman in league history to reach the 800 career points when he picked up a secondary assist on Chinakov’s career-high 17th goal of the season.
LIGHTNING 6, WILD 3
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Erik Cernak scored a tiebreaking goal with 2:53 left in the third period Minnesota goaltender Filip Gustavsson misplayed a carom off the end boards and Tampa Bay beat the Wild.
Cernak scored his second of the season after Charle-EdouardD’Astous’ pass traveled the length of the ice and bounced off the end boards toward Gustavsson, who failed to control the puck with his glove. The puck went between Gustavsson’s legs into the crease and Cernak pounced, sending it into the open net.
Tampa Bay rallied from a two-goal deficit, scoring three goals in the second period and five unanswered overall over the second and the third to win for the fourth time in five games and fifth time in seven.
Darren Raddysh had a goal and two assists, Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel and Jake Guentzel also scored, and Pontus Holmberg added an empty-netter in the final half-minute. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves to win his fourth straight start. Guentzel’s goal was his 32nd of the season and the 300th for his career.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a goal and an assist, and Mats Zuccarello and Brock Faber also scored for the Wild, who have lost five of their last seven games. Gustavsson stopped 19 of the 23 shots that he faced.
BLUES 3, CAPITALS 0
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jimmy Snuggerud and Otto Stenberg scored, Joel Hofer made 21 saves and St. Louis beat Washington.
Jordan Kyrou scored his team-leading 17th goal into an empty net with 41 seconds remaining to seal the win for Hofer, who earned his sixth shutout of the season and the eighth of his career.
St. Louis, which has won two in a row, has gone 9-2-2 since returning from the Olympic break.
Logan Thompson made 24 saves for Washington, which had not lost in regulation in its previous five games.
PREDATORS 6, SHARKS 3
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored a goal and assisted on two others to lead Nashville to a victory over San Jose in a matchup of teams headed in opposite directions in the standings.
Matthew Wood, Roman Josi, Luke Evangelista, Brady Skjei and Steven Stamkos also scored and Juuse Saros made 27 saves for Nashville, winners of a season-high five consecutive games. Jonathan Marchessault had three assists.
Will Smith scored two goals, Adam Gaudette had one and Alex Nedeljkovic made 13 saves for the Sharks, who lost their fifth straight game.
DEVILS 6, STARS 4
DALLAS (AP) — Jack Hughes scored twice in New Jersey’s four-goal first period, and the Devils handed Dallas consecutive losses in regulation for the first time in two months.
Jesper Bratt and Connor Brown also had goals as the Devils put four of their first five shots past Jake Oettinger to end the Dallas goalie’s career-best point streak at 14 games. Oettinger was pulled after the first period.
Wyatt Johnston had two goals to reach 40 for the first time in his career, and Jason Robertson scored his 39th for Dallas, which hadn’t lost two in a row in regulation since dropping three straight from Jan. 13-18.
JETS 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 1
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Mark Scheifele had a goal and two assists — and a rare fighting major in the second period — to lead the Winnipeg to a victory over Vegas.
Kyle Connor, Alex Iafallo and Cole Perfetti also scored for Winnipeg, which snapped a five-game home skid against Vegas.
Connor Hellebuyck made 26 saves to snap his six-game winless streak against the Golden Knights.
Colton Sissons scored the lone goal on the power play for Vegas. Adin Hill stopped 17 shots.
FLAMES 3, KINGS 2, SO
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Yegor Sharangovich scored in the fourth round of the shootout to lead Calgary to a victory over Los Angeles.
Olli Maatta and Zayne Parekh, each with their first goals of the season, scored in regulation time for the Flames, who have won four games in a row for the first time this season. Dustin Wolf stopped 23 shots.
Quinton Byfield scored both goals and Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves for Los Angeles, which has points in seven of their last nine but just three victories. They have dropped four straight.
With the loss the Kings fall three points behind the Nashville Predators for the final wild-card berth in the Western Conference.
OILERS 5, MAMMOTH 2
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Connor McDavid scored twice to give him 401 career goals and 1,200 points, sparking Edmonton Oilers to a victory over Utah.
McDavid became the fifth player in Oilers history to reach 400 goals when he took a feed from Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard and beat Karel Vejmelka with 7:53 left in the second period.
The go-ahead goal was his 40th of the season and put Edmonton in front 3-2. He scored his 401st goal on an empty-netter with 7.5 seconds remaining that also gave him his 1,200th point. McDavid also has 799 career assists.
Evan Bouchard had three assists to give him 82 points as he joined Cale Makar, Erik Karlsson and Roman Josi as the only NHL defensemen to record multiple 80-point seasons since 2005-06.
To complete the milestone-rich contest, Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins posted his 800th career NHL point with an assist in the first period on a goal by Roslovic, who had two scores. Matt Savoie scored a short-handed goal in the second.
Edmonton had 24 blocked shots and allowed just 18 shots on goal. Tristan Jarry made 16 saves.
The Oilers have won their last five games against the Mammoth and leapfrogged the Vegas Golden Knights (79-78 points) for second place in the Pacific Division as the playoff races heat up.
Alexander Kerfoot and Lawson Crouse scored for Utah. Vejmelka stopped 11 shots, but was replaced after the second period by Vitek Vanecek.
DUCKS 5, Canucks 3
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Mikael Granlund scored twice, Alex Killorn had a goal and an assist, and Anaheim beat Vancouver.
Mason McTavish and Troy Terry also scored for the Ducks, while John Carlson had three assists and Lukas Dostal stopped 27 shots.
Anaheim grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second period, only to see Vancouver rally and tie the game twice before McTavish scored the winner at the 5:45 mark of the third.
Jake DeBrusk, Brock Boeser and Drew O’Connor scored for the Canucks, while Filip Hronek and Elias Pettersson each contributed a pair of assists. Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves.
Detroit Red Wings goaltender John Gibson (36) stops a Ottawa Senators right wing Drake Batherson (19) shot as Jacob Bernard-Docker (25) and Albert Johansson (20) defend in the first period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
