Lawsuits Over Social Media Mental Health Risks Clear Major Hurdle in California State Court

The first social media addiction lawsuit jury trial is scheduled to begin in California state court on November 24, with federal bellwether trials not expected to begin until late 2026.

A California judge overseeing teen social media addiction lawsuits filed in that state has cleared the litigation to proceed toward trial, after rejecting efforts to exclude the testimony of plaintiffs’ expert witnesses, who will support claims that platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat use algorithms that fuel widespread youth mental health problems.

Meta, Google and other internet companies face thousands of product liability lawsuits brought by families nationwide, each raising similar claims that the social media platforms were designed to maximize engagement through data collection and recommendation algorithms that fuel compulsive use among children and teens, increasing the risk of serious mental health problem. 

While families are seeking compensation for individual harms like anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, claims are also being pursued by several different school districts nationwide, seeking reimbursement for the growing costs of responding to what they call a youth mental health crisis driven by social media addiction. Those costs include counseling, crisis intervention and special education services.

In federal court, the lawsuits have been consolidated as part of a social media addiction lawsuit multidistrict litigation (MDL) in the Northern District of California before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who has ordered the parties to prepare a small group of school district claims to be the first cases to go to trial. However, many claims have also been consolidated in California state court as well, under Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl.

In the California state court litigation, the parties recently went through a series of hearings, where the judge presiding over the claims was asked to determine whether expert testimony proposed by each side was sufficiently sound and grounded in established science to allow a jury to consider the opinions. 

These hearings were critical, since excluding the plaintiffs’ experts would have effectively ended the case by leaving them with no way to prove the platforms caused harm.

Following a September 17 hearing, Judge Kuhl issued a ruling (PDF) this week, which allows multiple experts to testify, rejecting broad defense arguments that their opinions were unreliable or that harms had to be tied to each individual platform. She noted that many of those issues are questions for the jury to resolve.

“As to harms arising from all types of social media platforms, Defendants have failed to demonstrate that their social platforms are so different from each other that it would be scientifically unreliable to investigate their mental health effects as a group.”

– Carolyn Kulh, Judge of the Superior Court of California

Federal Social Media Addiction Lawsuits

At the federal level, Judge Rogers has announced that six school district social media addiction lawsuits will be the first to go to trial. However, earlier this month the parties announced that they have failed to agree on the order in which the trials should be held.

Plaintiffs want a lawsuit filed by the Tucson school district to go first, because it is trial ready and includes key claims that will be repeated throughout the litigation. Defendants are asking that a lawsuit by the Irvington school district, the smallest of the six districts, goes first, claiming it is closer in size to most school district lawsuits filed.

The outcomes of these bellwether trials will not be binding on the other claims in the MDL, but they will be closely watched to see how the juries weigh evidence and testimony that would likely be repeated throughout the litigation. The results may have a substantial impact on any social media addiction settlement negotiations to resolve the litigation in the coming years.

However, the first trial over claims of social media addiction is scheduled to be held in California state court, which is expected to begin on November 24, 2025. The federal bellwether trials are not expected to begin until late 2026.