Social Media Addiction MDL Trials Set To Begin June 15 and Aug. 6, 2026

The first federal social media addiction lawsuit to go before a jury will involve claims brought by school districts, with a second trial involving claims brought by state Attorneys General, indicating the problems are taxing public resources.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all teen social media addiction lawsuits brought throughout the federal court system has scheduled the first two bellwether cases to go before juries this summer, involving allegations that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other popular platforms were intentionally designed to foster harmful addictions among children.

The trials will be closely watched as “bellwethers” to help gauge how juries may respond to certain evidence and allegations now being pursued in more than 2,300 claims brought by families, school districts and state governments, who seek to hold companies like Meta and Google accountable for devastating mental health side effects experienced by teens and young adults in recent years.

Plaintiffs claim the platforms use data-driven algorithms, often illegally harvesting private information on children’s online activities, to encourage compulsive use, as part of an effort to maximize profits and user engagement.

While most claims come from individual families seeking compensation for harms such as anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, school districts and state governments have also filed lawsuits seeking reimbursement for the rising costs of addressing a youth mental health crisis fueled by social media addiction. These expenses include counseling programs, crisis intervention efforts and expanded special education services.

At the federal level, all of the claims have been consolidated into a social media addiction MDL (multidistrict litigation), which is currently pending in the Northern District of California before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, where the court has been presiding over coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings over the past few years.

Early in the litigation, Judge Rogers directed the parties to prepare for a series of early test cases designed to see how juries respond to testimony and arguments likely to be repeated throughout the litigation. The first social media addiction MDL trial will involve claims by school districts that say they have had to pay for mental health treatment, tutoring and other expenses to address the social media addiction epidemic. The second will involve similar claims brought by various different state Attorneys General, seeking reimbursement for expenses incurred by local governments.

Federal Cases Being Prepared for Trial

The parties met with Judge Rogers for a case management conference on February 11, at which time they discussed the status of the litigation and reviewed proposed pretrial schedules, general trial plans and jury instructions that will be given in the first bellwether cases. 

At the hearing, Judge Rogers approved pretrial deadlines for the first two bellwether trials, according to minutes from the proceedings (PDF).

The first trial will involve claims from the Breathitt County Board of Education or the Tucson Unified School District and will be held on June 15, 2026. Pretrial conferences will be held on March 18 and April 14, with jury selection on June 12.

A separate case brought by a state Attorney General will follow on August 6, 2026, with the same pretrial conference dates. Judge Rogers will also hear arguments on the state’s motion for summary judgment on April 15, and jury selection is scheduled to begin August 5.

Days before the case management conference, Judge Rogers issued an order (PDF) rejecting a motion for summary judgment brought by the social media platforms, which sought to dismiss claims of negligence and public nuisance brought by Breathitt School District.

California State Social Media Trial Continues

While the first federal social media addiction MDL trial is still months away, a trial involving individual claims is already underway in a Los Angeles County courtroom.

The case was brought by a California woman identified as K.G.M., who alleges that TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google knowingly designed their platforms in ways that encouraged compulsive use and failed to protect young users from foreseeable mental health harms.

The lawsuit claims the companies prioritized engagement and user retention over safety, exposing young users to increased risks of anxiety, depression and other psychological injuries. TikTok and Snapchat have already reached settlements with the plaintiff, leaving only Meta and Google to participate in the trial.

Although an independent state court case, the trial represents the first time a jury will evaluate claims that social media platform design and recommendation systems contributed to addiction-related mental health injuries.

While the outcomes of these early bellwether trials will not have any binding impact on other claims, they may help determine how much the platforms may end up paying in social media addiction settlements to resolve the litigation.

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