Meta, YouTube Face Trial Over Child Addiction Claims

Is social media harm a matter of personal responsibility or are platforms engineered to be addictive by design?

Published 8 hours ago

Meta, YouTube Face Trial Over Child Addiction Claims

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Above: Lawyers for Meta arrive at the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Feb. 9. Image credit: Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-establishment narrative

While no one can deny the potential harms of social media, the platforms themselves shouldn't be held liable for every individual user's mental health struggles when research remains inconclusive and individual responses vary wildly. Parents possess ample control tools to manage their children's screen time, and blaming big tech ignores the reality that personal and parental responsibility must guide decisions about social media use.

The Wall Street Journal

Establishment-critical narrative

Social platforms function as defective products built with infinite scroll, autoplay and algorithm-driven recommendations that remove natural stopping points and create compulsive behavior by design. Courts and European regulators now recognize that dopamine-driven variable reinforcement turns phones into slot machines, placing responsibility squarely on systems engineered to capture attention rather than on users.

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