The Jury Has Weighed In, but the Jury Is Still Out

In March 2026, a jury in Los Angeles found Meta and Google liable in a lawsuit brought by a young woman who said their platforms harmed her mental health as a teenager. Google said it plans to appeal, and Meta said it is evaluating its legal options. The case drew wide attention, and it is one of many similar lawsuits.

A courtroom and a research study answer different questions. Dr. Lanny Berman, Senior Advisor to the Johns Hopkins Center for Suicide Prevention, argues that the jury may have weighed in, but on the science, the jury is still out.

What jurors heard

According to Dr. Berman, jurors were presented with studies reporting that young people who spend three or more hours a day on social media have more social anxiety, depression, negative body image and social isolation than less frequent users. Those associations are real concerns. The harder question is what they mean.

Why the evidence is not settled

Dr. Berman points to several limits in the research:

• Correlation is not cause. Most studies are cross-sectional, measuring social media use and mental health at one point in time. They cannot show whether heavy use leads to distress, whether young people who are already struggling spend more time online, or both.
• Longer studies have gaps. Studies that follow young people over time, or ask them to cut back, often lose many participants, cannot fully control access across devices, include mostly female participants and last from one day to three weeks.
• "Heavy use" has no agreed definition. Four or more hours a day is typical for teens. In a 2023 Gallup survey, U.S. teens reported an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media, with girls averaging 5.3 hours and boys 4.4.
• Measurement is imprecise. Many studies rely on a single self-reported estimate of time online, or on overall "screen time" that mixes social media with games and television.
• Other factors are rarely examined. Family conflict, existing physical or mental health conditions and underlying suicide risk can shape both screen use and well-being.
• Effects are generally small, and adolescents are often treated as one group rather than as younger, middle and older teens.

He also notes that late-night use can cut into sleep, and that poor sleep is itself linked to poorer mental health.

What this means

None of this dismisses concern about young people and social media. Parents, schools and young people themselves are right to pay attention. It does mean that "social media causes the youth mental health problem" is a stronger claim than the evidence supports today.

Better research, including studies that follow young people over time, measure use accurately and account for factors like sleep and family stress, can show which experiences online help, which harm and for whom. Sound policy, Dr. Berman argues, depends on getting that evidence right.