Why social media giants are on trial in the US for hooking kids

SAN FRANCISCO - A flood of lawsuits against social media giants claim that by engineering their platforms to be hard to resist, the companies are causing serious harm to young users.In the first personal injury case to go to trial, a Los Angeles jury in March found Meta Platforms and Google negligent in the design and operation of their platforms – awarding US$6 million (S$7.6 million) to a 20-year-old woman in a landmark verdict. Many US states also have taken legal action against social media companies on behalf of the public.At a trial that began Aug 18 in federal court in Oakland, California, 29 states suing Meta are seeking penalties of as much as US$1.4 trillion as well as court orders to force the company to change how its Facebook and Instagram apps operate.These historic trials, a