Deadlines in Teen Social Media Addiction Lawsuits Extended by MDL Judge

Ruling gives social media platforms two more weeks to contest expert witness testimony presented by families of teens and young adults who have developed severe mental health effects from social media addiction.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all teen social media addiction lawsuits has agreed to extend key deadlines in the litigation by three weeks, at the request of both plaintiffs and defendants, as the parties continue to prepare for early “bellwether” trials.

The owners of popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok face thousands of claims brought by families across the U.S. who say that the algorithms used by the social media websites are designed to maximize engagement at the cost of the mental health of children and young adults, driving them toward addiction, anxiety, depression and even suicide.

Claims against the creators, like Meta and Google, allege that the companies knowingly exploit youths’ psychological vulnerabilities, and seek to hold them accountable for severe mental and emotional harm, including wrongful death lawsuits filed by the parents of children who committed suicide due to their experiences on these sites.

While many cases have been filed in various state courts, primarily in California, the largest number of the claims, about 1,800, are pending in the federal court system, where they have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California for coordinated pretrial proceedings.

In June, Judge Rogers chose 11 social media addiction lawsuits that are being prepared for early bellwether trials, which are designed to gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. Those claims are currently going through additional case-specific discovery in preparation for the first trial, which is expected to be go before a jury in late 2026.

Last month, the parties sent a joint request to Judge Rogers, indicating that they will need more time to complete expert discovery. As a result, she issued a court order (PDF) extending the teen social media addiction lawsuit deadlines by three weeks; moving the expert discovery completion deadline from August 27, 2025, to September 17, which impacts other key dates.

The extension moves the deadline for two plaintiffs’ expert depositions from September 10 to September 24. The order also reschedules the deadline for Defendants to file Rule 702 motions regarding two of the Plaintiffs’ experts from September 10, 2025, to September 24. Deadlines for plaintiffs to respond in opposition to those motions have been moved from September 24, 2025, to November 5. Defendants’ replies to those motions are now due on November 25, 2025.

While the parties continue to prepare federal claims for bellwether trials, the first social media addiction lawsuit trial is set to begin in California state court on the week of November 24, following jury selections on November 19. A second state court trial is scheduled for March 9, 2026, and a third is set to begin on May 11, 2026.

Although none of the outcomes of the early bellwether trials in federal or state court will be binding on other families pursuing claims, they may have a substantial impact on any social media addiction settlement negotiations to resolve the litigation in the coming years.

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