Social Media Addiction and Severe Emotional, Physical Harm: Strategies for Establishing Liability and Proving Damages

Description

Claims of teenage addiction to social media, resulting in severe emotional and physical harm, such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, have resulted in thousands of individual lawsuits against social media companies. Parents, school districts, and others contend that social media companies designed their platforms and algorithms to prolong viewer engagement, knowing that these designs can and do promote teen addiction, and seeking recovery for psychiatric care, pain and suffering, and punitive damages.

The threshold issue, as a recent opinion stated, is whether the law provides a remedy for the alleged harm that defendants supposedly caused. Various theories of product liability, negligence, and violation of state law unfair and deceptive acts and practices statutes, and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, have been alleged. Until recently most claims have failed, but optimism is high for plaintiffs after several recent victories.

Counsel will want to understand which causes of action have withstood formidable challenges, including Section 230 immunity and First Amendment privilege, and why. Nonetheless, plaintiffs face many evidentiary and causation hurdles, which may vary depending on the identity of the parties. As this area develops, counsel should know which experts are being well received, the role of professional studies, and the effect of whistleblower actions.

Listen as this panel offers guidance on what causes of action are most effective, what defenses are proving most difficult to overcome, and whether these lawsuits are likely to end with multi-billion-dollar settlements, as against Big Tobacco, or fizzle out when the merits of the claims are put to the test.