Who is Kaley, the woman awarded $6 million in a lawsuit over childhood social media addiction?

A jury in Los Angeles, US, has ruled that social media platforms were deliberately designed in a way that contributes to addictive use and causes harm to children. The ruling came after the now 20-year-old plaintiff, identified as Kaley, accused the tech giants of fuelling her childhood addiction to social media.

According to a report by BBC, the jury found that Meta - the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp - and Google, which owns YouTube, “acted with malice, oppression, or fraud” in the operation of their platforms.

The court has awarded Kaley a total of $6 million (£4.5 million) in damages, including $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Meta will bear 70% of the penalty, while Google will pay the remaining 30%.

The tech giants, however, have disagreed with the verdict and have said that they “will continue to defend themselves vigorously”.

Meta asserted that mental health cannot be blamed on a single app. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously, as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”

‘It’s been proven it’s not safe’

A spokesperson for Google told BBC: “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”

Campaigners, however, described the ruling as a turning point. Ellen Roome, who is pursuing legal action against TikTok following the death of her son, called it an “enough is enough” moment.

“How many more children are going to be harmed and potentially die from these platforms?” she was quoted as saying by BBC.

“It’s been proven it’s not safe — and social media companies need to fix it.”

Scenes of relief and celebration unfolded outside the courthouse, where families of other children who claimed to have been harmed by social media had gathered throughout the five-week trial.

The Los Angeles ruling comes on the heels of New Mexico’s ruling finding Meta liable for exposing children to sexually explicit material and risks from online predators.

Mike Proulx, research director at advisory firm Forrester, said the consecutive rulings signal a “breaking point” in public trust.

“Negative sentiment towards social media has been building for years, and now it has finally boiled over,” he said.

Several countries, including Australia, have already introduced restrictions aimed at limiting children’s access to social media, while the UK is piloting measures to assess a potential ban for users under 16.