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Is social media the new Big Tobacco? That’s the argument now being tested in a Los Angeles courtroom, where the first of several lawsuits against major social media companies got underway this week.
At the heart of the cases is a familiar accusation: did companies intentionally design their platforms to hook children? Maybe they did. Maybe they didn’t. That’s what courts will decide.
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat are among the defendants in current and pending litigation. According to one report, the lawsuits involve thousands of individual plaintiffs, hundreds of school districts, and dozens of state attorneys general, with more cases expected this year.
The stats are a bit disturbing.
- Average daily use per Gallup: Teens (ages 13 to 17) spend about 4.8 hours per day on social media on average, with over half (51%) reporting at least 4 hours per day. Girls tend to spend more time than boys (about 5.3 hrs vs. 4.4 hrs).
- Pew Research: Nearly half of teens say they are online “almost constantly.”
- National Library of Medicine: Up to 95% of teens (ages 13 to 17) report using at least one social media platform, and more than a third use them almost constantly.
Is social media bad for kids? Probably. And, as with most things, the answer likely depends on how much exposure they have and at what age.
According to a study from the organization Common Sense, children are being introduced to screens earlier than ever. Four in ten have a tablet by the age of two, and nearly one in four owns a personal cellphone by eight. While total screen time has held steady at roughly two and a half hours a day, how kids spend that time has changed dramatically. Gaming alone has jumped 65 percent in just four years. Traditional television viewing is fading, replaced by short-form video on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. The result is a far more fragmented and immersive media landscape.
Missing from much of the public dialogue is an uncomfortable question: where does parental responsibility fit into this conversation?
If social media has harmed children, don’t parents who allowed — or failed to limit — their kids’ time on these platforms bear some share of the responsibility? What about the decision to buy those connected devices at such a young age? Failing to set screen-time limits? Handing a smartphone to a child and hoping for the best?
Simply blaming Big Tech feels a little too easy.
And where does this road lead? If these lawsuits succeed, what stops the next wave — against AI developers like ChatGPT, or whatever technology comes next? Will fear of litigation fundamentally reshape the internet and its evolution? At some point, companies will ask: why innovate if success only guarantees a lawsuit that drains resources and discourages progress?
None of this is to deny that social media is different. Algorithms are more powerful. Content is more targeted. Platforms are engineered to keep users scrolling. But distraction itself is not new.
Television, video games, and other digital diversions have been around for decades. Parents have long known that allowing children to zone out for hours — whether in front of a screen or otherwise — isn’t a net positive.
If we fail to assign responsibility where it belongs, we’ll never see meaningful change. The buck ultimately stops with parents. They can cut internet access. Take away devices. Replace endless scrolling with a ball and bat, a book, or a puzzle.
That doesn’t mean Big Tech is blameless. If companies knowingly caused harm — and litigants can prove that – Tech should face serious consequences.
But treating social media companies as the sole villain is incomplete. It sidesteps a deeper and more troubling trend in American life: a lack of sustained investment in our children. Investment that takes time, attention, and effort — often at the expense of pursuits adults deem more urgent or convenient.
A serious solution requires more than lawsuits. It requires a measured, deliberate effort to protect kids from harm and to recommit to the hard, unglamorous work of raising them to become healthy, productive citizens.