THORNTON, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado woman whose son died from a fentanyl-laced pill he bought through social media celebrated a pair of verdicts this week against Meta and YouTube that she said opened the door for companies to be held responsible for harms to children using their platforms.
“The truth is out, and it’s time that they are held accountable for the design of the platforms,” said Kimberly Osterman, whose son Max died in 2021 at age 18. “They put profits over safety.”
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A photo of Max Osterman, whose mother says he died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, is worn on his mother's blouse at her home in Thornton, Colo., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
A childhood photo of Max Osterman, whose mother says he died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, is displayed in his mother's living room in Thornton, Colo., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Kim Osterman, who says her son Max died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, poses for a portrait in her living room in Thornton, Colo., Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
A tribute to Max Osterman, whose mother says he died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, is displayed in his mother's living room in Thornton, Colo., Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Kim Osterman shows photos of her son Max, who she says died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, in her living room in Thornton, Colo., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Flipping through photo albums Thursday at her home in Colorado, Osterman reflected on “the days before social media. The days before the infinite scrolling lured him in.” Photos of him in frames with hearts and angels wings dotted the shelves.
Osterman said Max arranged to meet a drug dealer he connected with on Snapchat and purchased what he thought was Percocet. The pill was laced with a deadly dose of fentanyl, and he was dead the next morning. Osterman is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit that is separate from cases decided this week.
In Los Angeles on Wednesday, a jury found both YouTube and Meta, which owns and operates platforms including Instagram and Facebook, liable for harms to children for designing their platforms to hook young users. The companies said they disagreed with the verdicts and may appeal.
And in New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Meta said it would appeal.
Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., settled for an undisclosed sum in January just before the Los Angeles trial began. TikTok also agreed to settle, and details were not disclosed.
Osterman is part of Parents for Safe Online Spaces, or ParentsSOS, a group that includes parents who have lost children to online harm and advocate for more regulation. It has campaigned for the Kids Online Safety Act, pending federal legislation that would require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on platforms minors are likely to use.
She hopes to see social media companies enact strict guardrails, such as age verification technology, to prevent anyone under 18 from accessing the platforms.
“You think your kids are safe in their home, in their bedroom, but that's not the way it is with the current status of social media,” she said.
Osterman knew Max used Snapchat to communicate with friends but did not realize the danger he was in. She said he loved lacrosse and wrestling and was academically brilliant.
The man who sold the pill to him, Sergio Guerra-Carrillo, was sentenced to six years in prison on two distribution charges in 2023.
Snapchat did not immediately comment Thursday when asked about Osterman's case. The company has said previously that it uses cutting-edge technology to proactively find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts and blocks search results for drug-related terms.
It is not yet clear whether the recent verdicts against the social platforms will lead to major changes. But the verdicts demonstrate a growing willingness to hold major social media companies responsible and demand meaningful change. Tech watchdogs expect they will open the door for more lawsuits and regulations.
Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.
A photo of Max Osterman, whose mother says he died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, is worn on his mother's blouse at her home in Thornton, Colo., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
A childhood photo of Max Osterman, whose mother says he died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, is displayed in his mother's living room in Thornton, Colo., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Kim Osterman, who says her son Max died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, poses for a portrait in her living room in Thornton, Colo., Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
A tribute to Max Osterman, whose mother says he died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, is displayed in his mother's living room in Thornton, Colo., Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
Kim Osterman shows photos of her son Max, who she says died after taking fentanyl he bought from a dealer on Snapchat, in her living room in Thornton, Colo., on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
HOUSTON (AP) — Alvaro Folgueiras converted a critical three-point play when Nebraska only had four defenders on the floor, and ninth-seeded Iowa continued its unpredictable NCAA Tournament run under first-year coach Ben McCollum, beating Nebraska 77-71 in a South Region semifinal on Thursday night.
Bennett Stirtz scored 20 points and Folgueiras had 16 for the Hawkeyes (24-12), who knocked off top-seeded Florida in the second round on Folgueiras’ 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
Iowa will face either Illinois or Houston on Saturday for a spot in the Final Four. McCollum, who won four Division II national titles at Northwest Missouri State, has now led Iowa to its fifth Elite Eight and first since 1987.
Fourth-seeded Nebraska (28-7) took an early 10-point lead against its Big Ten rival, and Iowa tied it four times but never led until Stirtz buried a 3-pointer to make it 68-65 with 2:10 to go. Sage Tate hit another 3 to cap a 9-0 run and put Iowa ahead 71-65.
The Cornhuskers got within three on a second-chance 3 by Braden Frager, but they were disorganized on the inbound play, leaving Folgueiras unguarded near the rim. He slammed it home — popping up screaming after he finished through contact as Iowa fans roared — and converted the free throw for a six-point lead.
Another dunk by Folgueiras with 34 seconds left made it 76-68.
Iowa transfer Pryce Sandfort made six 3s and scored 25 points for Nebraska, which won the first two March Madness games in program history to get this far. Frager added 16 points for coach Fred Hoiberg’s Cornhuskers, who delighted a traveling contingent of red-clad fans throughout their tournament run.
NO. 3 Illinois 65, NO. 2 HOUSTON 55
HOUSTON (AP) — David Mirkovic had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Illinois flexed its defensive muscles to eliminate last year’s national runner-up, beating Houston.
Next up is a meeting Saturday with ninth-seeded Iowa to see which Big Ten team will advance to the Final Four. It will be the 11th Elite Eight appearance for Illinois (27-8) and its second in three seasons under Brad Underwood.
In the Sweet 16 for a seventh consecutive time, the second-seeded Cougars (30-7) were thrilled to be playing a game just over two miles from their campus. But their poor shooting gave Houston fans little to cheer about and delighted the orange-clad Illini faithful who made the long trip to Texas.
Star freshman point guard Kingston Flemings, who expected to be an NBA lottery pick, had 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting and Milos Uzan made just 2 of 11 shots.
But they were far from the only Cougars who struggled offensively. The team shot just 34% in its lowest-scoring game of the season.
Illinois finished well under the 84.7 points a game it averaged entering Thursday. But its offense was still plenty powerful enough to send Houston back to its nearby campus. Keaton Wagler had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Illini, and Andrej Stojakovic — with his dad, three-time NBA All-Star Peja Stojakovic, in the stands — also scored 13.
NO. 1 ARIZONA 109, NO. 4 ARKANSAS 88
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Arizona finally got over the Sweet 16 hurdle under coach Tommy Lloyd, getting 23 points from Brayden Burries and a dominant offensive effort in a win over Arkansas.
Fellow freshmen Koa Peat added 21 points and Ivan Kharchenkov had 15 as the top-seeded Wildcats (35-2) won their 12th straight game overall to tie a school record for wins in a season and advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2015.
Arizona will play second-seeded Purdue on Saturday night for a spot in the Final Four.
Jaden Bradley, Motiejus Krivas and Tobe Awaka all scored 14 points as Arizona became the first team in NCAA Tournament history with six players scoring at least 14 points in a game.
Lloyd has won a record 147 games in his first five seasons as a head coach but has been unable to find tournament success before this season. Arizona had lost three times in the Sweet 16 and once in the first round as a No. 2 seed in Lloyd’s first four seasons.
But the Wildcats have rolled through this year’s tournament outside of a couple of tense moments in the second round against Utah State, outscoring the opposition by 67 points in three double-digit wins.
Freshman Darius Acuff Jr. scored 28 points for fourth-seeded Arkansas (28-9) in what might be the final college game for the talented freshman who scored 88 points in three tournament games. But he didn’t get nearly enough help against the deeper Wildcats.
NO. 2 PURDUE 79, NO. 11 TEXAS 77
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Trey Kaufman-Renn tipped in a miss by Braden Smith with 0.7 seconds left, and Purdue edged hobbling Texas star Tramon Mark and the Longhorns in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Texas (21-15) tied it moments earlier when Dailyn Swain made a driving layup, was fouled and converted the three-point play with 11.9 seconds to go. Smith had scored on his own drive with 38 seconds remaining and finished with 16 points.
Kaufman-Renn hit his first seven shots — going 6 for 6 and grabbing five rebounds in the first half — on the way to 20 points. He was mobbed by teammates right after the final buzzer sounded at SAP Center.
Mark scored 29 for the Longhorns, grimacing and clearly in pain limping on his injured left foot through the closing minutes when the sixth-year senior’s team needed him most. His points were the most by a Texas player in an NCAA Tournament game since Kevin Durant scored 30 against Southern California in the second round of the 2007 tournament.
Purdue (30-8) advances to Saturday’s Elite Eight game against either top-seeded Arizona (34-2) or No. 4 seed Arkansas (28-8), who were playing the late game at SAP Center.
Texas coach Sean Miller made his ninth Sweet 16 appearance in 21 seasons, the most of any coach who hasn’t reached the Final Four.
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
Iowa forward Alvaro Folgueiras, rear, and forward Cam Manyawu (3) celebrate during the second half against Nebraska in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament Thursday, March 26, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
