A mother’s warning

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: parents keep the pressure on social media companies. 

This story contains details of a young person’s self harm. We will resume in just a moment.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Last week, courts in California and New Mexico ruled that social media companies harmed young people, and showed that social media platforms can be held responsible under certain conditions.

EICHER: Combined, the courts hit Meta with penalties and damage awards totaling about 400 million dollars. Of course that’s a drop in the bucket of the company’s more than one trillion dollar value, but the wins open the door for thousands of similar lawsuits already in the works.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy talked to one mother waiting to bring her daughter’s case to court.

MARY MUNCY: In 2022, Cheryl McCormick Brown’s 16-year-old daughter committed suicide after being bullied online.

McKenna shared her family’s strong Christian faith. She volunteered at her school in Tampa, Florida, and was a hockey player.

BROWN: She traveled just about every weekend for practice and games and played at the highest levels of competitive hockey. She was a goalie, which she was fearless in many ways, she was resilient in many ways, which, you know, I certainly recognize some irony there.

She also used Snapchat and Instagram...just like her friends.

BROWN: We thought the platforms were safe, you know, they came with the phone, you know? And she was of age.

The summer before McKenna’s senior year, Brown says she became more withdrawn…she was constantly tired and constantly on her phone.

BROWN: We’d think that we’d go to bed, and that she was going to bed up in her room, and she’s tired the next morning like, she was, you know, was on her phone.

Brown says that summer, McKenna got caught up in some “teenage boy drama.” People at her school tried to humiliate her online. Calling her names and accusing her of “stealing a boyfriend.”

BROWN: Trying, and I can quote, “trying to leave her without a single friend.”

Brown believes social media algorithms contributed to McKenna’s death by pushing content that reinforced her negative thinking. And she says the design of the platforms kept McKenna from coming up for air.

BROWN: The infinite scroll, the constant notifications, the algorithms pushing that content...that it was all designed to be, to target kids that were younger than were even allowed to be on the platform.

But social media companies—and some libertarian policy groups—dispute that.

HUDDLESTON: When we look at these particular proposals around young people, I think we have to ask two questions. First, would these actually make the situation any better?

Jennifer Huddleston is a Senior Fellow with the Cato Institute. She says parents have always been concerned about what their kids are viewing, whether that’s video games or comic books. But different kids have different needs, and parents should be the ones choosing what they use. Not the government.

HUDDLESTON: The second though is, what does this mean for all users of the internet?

Any new laws must either affect all of social media or use some kind of age verification.

HUDDLESTON: We have to think, not only what does this mean for tech companies, but what does this mean for users? And what does it particularly mean for those users who in a more traditional media ecosystem might not have had the same opportunities?

Brown thinks any harm that might come from these laws is worth it. After McKenna died, Brown filed a lawsuit with the Social Media Victims Law Center—the same firm that just won a case against Meta and YouTube in Los Angeles.

In that landmark case, a 20-year-old identified in court records as “KGM” said social media use as a child harmed her mental health, and that social media companies deliberately designed products to target vulnerable children.

The jury found that YouTube and Meta were negligent in their platform design features and awarded KGM three million dollars.

When Brown heard that KGM won her case in California, she cried.

BROWN: We know that the risks are real, and now that they’ve been proven in court, that has a lot to do with feeling seen and feeling validated.

During the trial, KGM’s lawyers pointed to an internal Meta document showing the company wanted to hook children young and keep them through their teenage years. 

In one message, a Meta employee called Instagram a “drug” and the company’s role as that of a “pusher.”

It also revealed several internal studies that were not previously made public. One showed millions of users under the minimum age of 13 were on the platform in 2015, another showed that parental controls often failed to keep children off the platform.

BROWN: This case wasn’t about one bad person online, it was about systems that connect kids to harm. And yes, parents should be involved, and need to be involved, but they can’t do it alone.

Brown hopes this court decision will give Congress and states momentum to regulate social media platforms’ design.

Brown has been advocating for one bill called the Kids Online Safety Act. It overwhelmingly passed in the Senate in 2024, but stalled in the House. It’s being reconsidered this term.

For now, Brown’s lawyers are waiting to bring her case until a few other bellwether cases are litigated.

She says she and her family have learned a lot since McKenna’s death.

BROWN: That’s why we’re trying to be transparent with McKenna’s story and to help other families and prevent other kids from, you know, turning to the same outcome.

It’s a caution Brown says she wishes she’d heard herself, before it was too late for her daughter.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy in Tampa, Florida.

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