A California jury has held Meta and YouTube liable in a landmark child social media harm case, finding that the platforms’ addictive design contributed to a plaintiff’s mental health problems. After more than 40 hours of deliberation across nine days, jurors awarded $3 million in damages, with punitive damages still pending. The decision follows testimony including from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders. Meta and Google-owned YouTube said they plan to dispute the ruling and appeal; both argued that the case mischaracterizes the platforms’ functions. For higher education, the ruling adds pressure on institutions and researchers to treat digital well-being as a compliance and student success issue, while also raising the risk that similar cases could reshape how tech products are built, governed, and monitored under U.S. law.