Major social media platforms are set to face court trials over an important thread in the coming week.
Meta, TikTok, and YouTube will face courtroom scrutiny this week over allegations that their platforms are fueling a youth mental health crisis as the national debate about children’s screen time enters a new phase.
According to court filings, the bellwether trial in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County involves a 19-year-old woman from California, identified as KGM, who claimed she became addicted to the companies’ platforms at a young age because of their attention-grabbing design,reports Reuters.
She alleged the apps fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts and is seeking to hold the companies liable.
Her lawsuit is the first of several cases expected to go to trial this year that center on what the plaintiffs call “social media addiction” among children.
It will be the first time the tech giants must defend themselves at trial over alleged harm caused by their products, the plaintiff’s attorney Matthew Bergman said.
“They will be under a level of scrutiny that does not exist when you testify in front of Congress,” he told Reuters.
The jury will decide whether the companies were negligent in providing products that harmed KGM’s mental health and if her use of the apps was a substantial factor in her depression, compared with other causes such as the third-party content she viewed on the apps or aspects of her life offline.
“This is a test case,” said Clay Calvert, a media lawyer at the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business think tank. “We’re going to see what happens with the theories” that the social media platforms caused the plaintiff harm.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is expected to take the witness stand. The company will argue in court its products did not lead to KGM’s mental health challenges, Meta’s lawyers told Reuters ahead of the trial.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel was also expected to testify, as his company was named a defendant in the lawsuit. Snap agreed on January 20, 2026, to settle KGM’s lawsuit.
A YouTube executive also expressed, ahead of the trial, that the platform will argue the company’s platforms are fundamentally different from social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok and should not be lumped together in court.
While TikTok has declined to comment about the company’s planned arguments in court.
Shaping Public opinion
On the contrary, as the trial begins, the same tech companies are mounting a nationwide effort to convince critics their products are safe for teens.
They’ve launched tools they said give parents more control over how their children use the platforms and have spent millions promoting the features.
Since at least 2018, Meta has sponsored parent workshops about teen online safety at dozens of high schools across the US and partnered with nonprofit advocates for child welfare.
TikTok sponsored similar gatherings and programmes that included tutorials on TikTok’s features for parents, including the option to limit screen time at night, according to the curriculum.
In addition to that, YouTube’s parent company, Google, in recent years has turned to Girl Scouts to convince the public it is invested in children’s online safety.
The companies have also hired lawyers who have represented corporations in high-profile litigation involving addiction.