Barbara Ortutay

Lori Schott, center, is embraced as she holds up a photo of her daughter Annalee Schott, after the verdict in a landmark trial over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children at Los Angeles Superior Court, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/William Liang)

Verdicts against Meta, YouTube validate concerns long raised by parents, child safety advocates

March 26, 2026 at 12:39 p.m.

For years, parents, teenagers, pediatricians, educators and whistleblowers have pushed the idea that social media is detrimental to young people’s mental health and can lead to addiction, eating disorders, sexual...

Julianna Arnold, left, mother and advocate for online child safety after her 17-year-old daughter, Coco, died in 2022 from fentanyl poisoning following a social media encounter, hugs Mandi Furniss, parent of LJ, 18, from East Texas before they enter court for closing arguments in a landmark trial over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children at Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles Thursday, March. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Jury finds Instagram and YouTube liable in landmark social media addiction trial

March 25, 2026 at 5:35 p.m.

A jury found both Meta and YouTube liable in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that aimed to hold social media platforms responsible for harm to children using their services, awarding the plaintiff...

Members of Elon Musk’s legal team, including attorney Michael Lifrak, left, exit the Phillip Burton Federal Building, in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Dan Hernandez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Jury finds Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter purchase, absolves him of some fraud claims

March 20, 2026 at 5:09 p.m.

A jury has found Elon Musk liable for misleading investors by deliberately driving down Twitter’s stock price in the tumultuous months leading up to his 2022 acquisition of the social...

FILE – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during an event at the Biohub Imaging Institute in Redwood City, Calif., Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Mark Zuckerberg testifies at trial accusing social media firms of addicting kids to their platforms

February 18, 2026 at 3:15 p.m.

Mark Zuckerberg will testify in an unprecedented social media trial that questions whether Meta’s platforms deliberately addict and harm children.

FILE – Young people use their phones to view social media in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)

Social media ‘addicting the brains of children,’ plaintiff’s lawyer argues in landmark trial

February 10, 2026 at 8:13 a.m.

Comparing social media platforms to casinos and addictive drugs, lawyer Mark Lanier delivered opening statements Monday in a landmark trial in Los Angeles that seeks to hold Instagram owner Meta...

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos updates media on the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, in Tucson, Ariz., on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Sejal Govindarao)

Savannah Guthrie’s demand for mom’s ‘proof of life’ is complicated in this era of AI and deepfakes

February 6, 2026 at 8:04 a.m.

When Savannah Guthrie made a heart-wrenching plea to the kidnapper of her 84-year-old mother to send “proof of life,” she addressed the possibility of people creating deepfakes.

TikTok settles as social media giants face landmark trial over youth addiction claims

January 27, 2026 at 11:57 a.m.

TikTok agreed to settle a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off, the plaintiff’s attorneys confirmed.

FILE – Workers install lighting on an “X” sign atop the company headquarters in downtown San Francisco, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

X’s new feature raises questions about the foreign origins of some popular US political accounts

November 25, 2025 at 3:23 p.m.

After a weekend update to the social media platform X, owners of some political accounts, and many others, are located in regions such as South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe.

FILE – The gaming platform Roblox is displayed on a tablet, Oct. 30, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Leon Keith, File)

Roblox steps up age checks and groups younger users into age-based chats

November 18, 2025 at 3:29 p.m.

Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to chat with other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens and adults will only be able...

China says it will work with US to resolve issues related to TikTok

October 30, 2025 at 8:14 a.m.

President Donald Trump’s meeting Thursday with China’s top leader Xi Jinping produced a raft of decisions to help dial back trade tensions, but no agreement on TikTok’s ownership.

All Stories