U.S. civil cases expose how social media addiction harms youth: Canadian experts
A pair of successful U.S. civil lawsuits against social media giants this week could be a “turning point” in society’s larger understanding that use of their various apps is not harmless and can be damaging and dangerous, particularly to children.
“For many years, the model was that this was one of individual responsibility — it was up to individuals, whether that was children or their parents in this case, to regulate their own use,” Sachin Marahaj, assistant professor of educational leadership, policy and program evaluation at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of education, told National Post in an interview.
“But increasingly, it’s been recognized that that is not really tenable, particularly given the way these apps are designed to maximize engagement and, some would argue, myself included, to be addictive and kind of overwhelm the impulse control of any one person.”
He expects more courts and juries will follow suit, putting increased pressure on the tech behemoths to take responsibility and do something about it.
Wednesday in California, a jury decided that Meta and Alphabet’s Google were negligent in designing platforms that are detrimental to the mental health of young people and failing to inform users.
The plaintiff, a 20-year-old identified in court documents as Kaley because she was a minor at the time, argued that she became addicted to Google’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram due to their design. She said she eventually became so depressed that she experienced suicidal ideation and required medical treatment.
The jury didn’t find that the apps caused her mental health woes, but they did aggravate them. They awarded her US$6 million in damages, Reuters reported . She also received undisclosed damages from TikTok and Snapchat, social media companies she also sued but settled with out of court.
Meta and Google plan to appeal.
A day earlier in New Mexico, Meta was slapped with a penalty of US$375 million after a jury determined that it knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms. A second phase of the trial will begin in May, when a judge will decide if the company’s platforms are a public nuisance and if it should pay for programs to address the harm they cause, according to the Associated Press.
Dozens of other states and attorneys general have also filed suit against Meta.
The idea that the apps are addictive is passionately shared and endorsed by Paul Bennett, director of the Schoolhouse Institute educational consulting firm in Halifax and author of “ Weapons of Mass Distraction : Curbing social media addiction and reclaiming the smartphone generation.”
When the McDonald-Laurier Institute senior fellow set out to write the report in 2024, it was about cellphone restriction policies in Canadian classrooms, but he soon learned the larger issue was social media addiction. In his view, it was being largely overlooked.
“Banning cellphones in classrooms is little more than a Band-Aid solution,” he wrote. “Smartphones have become as addictive for teens as cigarettes were until two decades ago.”
And like the campaign against big tobacco from the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bennett told National Post in an interview that it will require health authorities to mobilize together to enact tougher restrictions.
Thus far, he’s seen little evidence that they’re taking social media addiction among youth seriously and said pediatricians and the mental health associations “have been very slow to pick up on this.”
Marahaj acknowledged there isn’t much existing research on the topic, but said efforts are already underway to catch up to the trending issue.
He highlighted a 2025 U.S. study of just under 12,000 kids over multiple years, which found that “when they increase their use of social media, that predicts a worsening in their mental health in the future, like a year later, two years later,” thereby illustrating causation.
Still, Bennett worries about the fate of cases against Meta before Canadian courts.
Four of Ontario’s largest school boards — Toronto District, Peel District, Toronto Catholic and Ottawa-Carleton — initiated action against Meta, Snapchat and TikTok in March 2024, alleging their platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and are disrupting student learning and mental health. More boards and private schools have joined the litigation effort seeking billions in damages and sweeping changes to platform design.
The companies tried to have the case tossed, but a judge dismissed their request earlier this month.
Bennett thinks if Canadian health entities don’t adopt the recognition that “excessive screen dominance or cellphone use” is a form of addiction, “these legal cases are going to run into trouble, because at some point they’re going to subpoena or call in to testify mental health professionals and they, right now, haven’t done the work.”
The U.S. cases won’t be used to argue any of the cases in Ontario, but Canadian lawyers and plaintiffs are likely watching closely and could draw from strategy to argue their own claims.
Marahaj said they’re not the only ones paying attention, noting Rogers internet’s new “Screen Break” program , which aims to limit the amount of time kids spend staring into a screen and promote healthier behaviours.
“I think with these lawsuits, and the more that are successful, companies will be put in a position where they have to be proactive in trying to play their part in making sure that their products aren’t harming kids,” he said.
Maharaj is conducting a study on school cellphone bans and one of the biggest barriers to implementation he’s discovered are parents who have purchased these devices and want to remain connected to their kids.
But those same parents, himself included, are constantly on devices of their own and maybe don’t fully grasp the downsides of excessive use.
“I think what makes implementation around any of this stuff really difficult is the fact that these effects, while they’re probably most acute in children, the issue is covered among adults as well.”
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