ALTHOUGH social media companies are in many ways villains that have not done nearly enough to protect children on their platforms, they nonetheless should not be held liable based on claims that they are creating addictive and harmful online environments.
On Feb 9, a trial began in the Los Angeles Superior Court in a lawsuit brought by a woman, referred to in documents as Kaley GM, against tech giants YouTube and Instagram. (TikTok previously settled with her). The plaintiff’s claim is that these platforms were built specifically to be addictive to children. Hers is just one of more than 2,500 lawsuits now pending that are based on a variety of legal claims against some of the world’s largest corporations.
