Social media addiction lawsuit

The docket record

Full docket title: IN RE: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation. Programmatic record page: MDL 3047.

Where it stands

As of September 1, 2026, 3,208 actions are pending in the federal MDL (In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3047, N.D. Cal., Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers), up 71 in the prior month. A parallel, non-removable set of roughly 3,300 cases is coordinated in California state court as JCCP 5255 before Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl in Los Angeles Superior Court. The first bellwether trial, a personal-injury case (K.G.M. v. Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Snap) in JCCP 5255, ended March 25, 2026 with a $6 million jury verdict against Meta and YouTube; Snap and TikTok had settled with that plaintiff before trial. In federal court, a coalition of 29 state attorneys general took Meta to trial on August 18, 2026 over claims the company misrepresented harms to children; Meta settled with the states on August 26, 2026 for up to roughly $16.7 to $17 billion, before the case reached a verdict. That settlement resolves the state AG claims only; it does not resolve the federal personal-injury claims, the roughly 800 school-district cases, or the claims against TikTok, Snap, and YouTube. Additional California state bellwether trials are scheduled for October 2026, and federal school-district bellwether trials are expected to begin around February 2027.

Sources: Transfer Order, MDL No. 3047 (referencing original Oct. 6… · Pending MDLs report · MDL 3047 status report and timeline · JCCP 5255 California coordination: K.G.M. verdict and status; full list at the end of this page.

What the lawsuits are about

Plaintiffs allege that Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube built their platforms with design features, including infinite scroll, algorithmic content recommendation, autoplay, push notifications, and variable-reward mechanics, that are intended to maximize adolescent screen time and that this design creates compulsive, addiction-like use. The plaintiffs are three distinct groups: individual children and teenagers (and their parents) who allege personal injuries such as depression, anxiety, self-harm, and eating disorders; roughly 800 school districts and local government entities that allege the platforms increased costs for counseling, mental health services, and disciplinary response; and state attorneys general who allege the companies violated consumer-protection and children's privacy laws and misrepresented what they knew about the harms.

the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized the initial federal personal-injury and school-district cases in the Northern District of California on October 6, 2022, assigning them to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers as MDL No. 3047. A parallel set of state-court cases, mostly filed in California, was coordinated separately as JCCP 5255 before Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl in Los Angeles Superior Court, since MDL centralization only covers federal cases. On November 17, 2023, Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Section 230 and the First Amendment do not categorically bar the plaintiffs' claims, holding that design-defect and failure-to-warn theories aimed at features like algorithms, notifications, and content-curation tools can proceed because they target product design rather than third-party content itself. On October 24, 2024, she issued a similar ruling largely allowing the school districts' master complaint to proceed, while trimming some claims tied to third-party content under Section 230.

The litigation reached its first jury verdicts in 2026. In the California state coordination, Snap settled with the first bellwether plaintiff on January 22, 2026 and TikTok settled with the same plaintiff on January 27, 2026, both on confidential terms and without admitting liability, leaving Meta and YouTube as trial defendants; the jury returned a $6 million verdict against them on March 25, 2026. In the federal MDL, a coalition of 29 state attorneys general (led by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey) took Meta to trial on child-safety and consumer-protection claims starting August 18, 2026; Meta settled with the states on August 26, 2026 for a package reported at roughly $16.7 to $17 billion, plus commitments to default settings including screen-time limits and nighttime restrictions on Instagram and Facebook for minors. That settlement did not resolve the personal-injury or school-district claims against Meta, or any claims against TikTok, Snap, or YouTube, which remain active. Further California bellwether trials are scheduled for October 2026, and the first federal school-district bellwether trials are expected in February 2027.

Injuries named in the filings

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Self-harm and suicidal ideation
• Body dysmorphia
• Eating disorders (including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder)
• Sleep disruption
• Compulsive or addictive platform use
• Exposure to cyberbullying and related mental health harm

Principal defendants: Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook, Instagram); ByteDance / TikTok Inc.; Snap Inc. (Snapchat); Google LLC / YouTube, LLC.

Sources: Transfer Order, MDL No. 3047 (referencing original Oct. 6… · Pending MDLs report · MDL 3047 status report and timeline · JCCP 5255 California coordination: K.G.M. verdict and status; full list at the end of this page.

Who the filings say qualifies

Eligibility criteria below are drawn from the injury categories at issue in the master complaint and the court's rulings on which claims may proceed (design-defect, failure-to-warn, and negligence theories tied to specific platform features), plus how plaintiff law firms have summarized intake criteria for the litigation; the federal MDL's plaintiff fact sheet form itself was not located as a public document during this research and should be checked before this section is relied on for exact intake requirements.

• Used Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, or YouTube as a minor (under 18) during the relevant period
• Alleges a diagnosed or documented mental health or physical harm connected to platform use, such as depression, anxiety, self-harm, an eating disorder, or a sleep disorder
• Can point to a pattern of frequent or compulsive use consistent with the addiction-related design claims at issue in the master complaint
• Harm is attributed to specific platform design features named in the litigation (algorithmic recommendation, autoplay, infinite scroll, push notifications, or similar engagement mechanics), not to third-party content itself

Source: Summary of Judge Gonzalez Rogers' November 17, 2023 motion-to-dismiss ruling, MDL No. 3047 (as summarized by plaintiff-side sources).

These are the criteria in the public record, not a promise about any individual case. A law firm evaluates each case on its own facts, and limitations periods vary by state.

Key dates

1. October 6, 2022Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralizes federal personal-injury and school-district cases against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube in the Northern District of California as MDL No. 3047, assigned to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. source
2. November 17, 2023Judge Gonzalez Rogers rules that Section 230 and the First Amendment do not categorically bar plaintiffs' design-defect and failure-to-warn claims, allowing most of the personal-injury master complaint to proceed. source
3. October 24, 2024Judge Gonzalez Rogers largely upholds the school districts' master complaint, allowing negligence and related claims for counseling and mental-health-service costs to proceed while trimming some claims under Section 230. source
4. January 22, 2026Snap settles with the first California bellwether plaintiff (K.G.M.) days before trial, on confidential terms. source
5. January 27, 2026TikTok settles with the same bellwether plaintiff as jury selection begins in Los Angeles Superior Court, leaving Meta and YouTube as trial defendants. source
6. March 25, 2026Los Angeles jury returns the first verdict in the litigation: $6 million against Meta and YouTube in K.G.M. v. Meta, JCCP 5255, finding the platforms contributed to the plaintiff's mental health harm. source
7. August 18, 2026First federal MDL trial begins in Oakland: 29 state attorneys general, led by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, try consumer-protection and child-safety claims against Meta. source
8. August 26, 2026Meta settles with the 29 states for a package reported at roughly $16.7 to $17 billion plus mandated default protections for minors on Instagram and Facebook; the settlement resolves only the state AG claims, not the personal-injury or school-district cases. source
9. September 1, 2026JPML pending-MDL report shows 3,208 actions pending in MDL No. 3047, up 71 from the prior month. source

Questions people ask

Sources: Transfer Order, MDL No. 3047 (referencing original Oct. 6… · Pending MDLs report · MDL 3047 status report and timeline · JCCP 5255 California coordination: K.G.M. verdict and status; full list at the end of this page.

Track this docket

We re-read the JPML report on the first business day of each month. Get an email when this record changes: case count, status, or a settlement development.

Sources

1. U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, “Pending MDL Dockets by Actions Pending,” monthly reports January 2, 2024 to September 1, 2026. Transferee court: Northern District of California, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
2. Transfer Order, MDL No. 3047 (referencing original Oct. 6, 2022 centralization order), U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.
3. Pending MDLs report, U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.
4. MDL 3047 status report and timeline, MDL Update. Accessed September 3, 2026.
5. JCCP 5255 California coordination: K.G.M. verdict and status, MDL Update. Accessed September 3, 2026.
6. Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation tracker, Tech Policy Press. Accessed September 3, 2026.
7. Multidistrict litigation on internet addiction to move forward as court denies motions to dismiss, DiCello Levitt (law firm summary of court ruling). Accessed September 3, 2026.
8. Federal judge upholds key school district claims in social media addiction lawsuit, Levin Law (law firm summary of court ruling). Accessed September 3, 2026.
9. Snap settles social media addiction case days before trial, Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer (law firm). Accessed September 3, 2026.
10. Social Media Addiction Lawsuits (2026): KGM Trial, MDL 3047, and TikTok & Snapchat Settlements Explained, Spencer Law (law firm). Accessed September 3, 2026.
11. Meta is on trial again: what to know about the multistate case, PBS NewsHour. Accessed September 3, 2026.
12. High stakes as country's first social media addiction trial nears and Snap settles, American Enterprise Institute. Accessed September 3, 2026.
13. Social media giants on trial in California as courts revisit tech immunity, Tech Policy Press. Accessed September 3, 2026.

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