A U.S. court recognized responsibility for teen SNS addiction and returned a verdict ordering Meta and Google to pay about 9 billion won in damages.
On the 25th, AP and Reuters reported that a jury at a Los Angeles, California, trial court found that Instagram and YouTube contributed to teen addiction and ordered the two companies to pay a total of $6 million (about 9 billion won) in damages.
The damages combine $3 million for actual harm and $3 million in punitive damages of the same amount. If the verdict is finalized, Meta will bear 70% and Google 30%.
The decision came after more than a month of trial and over 40 hours of jury deliberations across nine days. During the proceedings, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta chief executive officer (CEO), and Adam Mosseri, Instagram CEO, also appeared as witnesses.
The plaintiff, a woman in her 20s, said she had used YouTube and Instagram since childhood and suffered depression and physical problems due to addiction, arguing the platforms were designed with structures that induce user immersion.
Meta countered that the user's mental health issues were unrelated to SNS, and YouTube argued its service is a video platform, not SNS, but the jury did not accept these claims.
The case carries the nature of a "lead trial" that will set a standard for similar lawsuits and is expected to influence future rulings. Across the United States, about 2,000 similar suits brought by parents and educational institutions are reportedly underway.
Meta said it "does not agree with the ruling and is reviewing legal options," and Google also pushed back, saying the verdict stems from a misunderstanding of YouTube's nature.