Juries find Meta and YouTube liable for child harm in Los Angeles and New Mexico cases
Juries in Los Angeles and New Mexico found Meta and YouTube liable for designing platforms to addict children and for failing to prevent child sexual exploitation. The case was prompted by the death of Max Osterman, who died in 2021 after purchasing fentanyl through a drug dealer he met on Snapchat.
What happened
A jury in Los Angeles on Wednesday found both YouTube and Meta liable for harms to children for designing their platforms to hook young users. In New Mexico, a jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children's mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Max Osterman died in 2021 at age 18 after purchasing what he thought was Percocet through a drug dealer he connected with on Snapchat; the pill was laced with a deadly dose of fentanyl. Snap Inc. settled for an undisclosed sum in January 2026 just before the Los Angeles trial began, and TikTok also agreed to settle with undisclosed details.
Reported impact
Max Osterman's mother, Kimberly Osterman, stated that the platforms' infinite scrolling feature lured her son in and that the companies put profits over safety. She celebrated the verdicts as opening the door for companies to be held responsible for harms to children using their platforms.
Governance controls
Meta and YouTube both disagreed with the verdicts and said they may appeal.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.