A landmark trial against Meta and YouTube brought by a 20-year-old woman who blames the platforms for social media addiction that began when she was six, has ended with the jury finding the companies guilty of harming her through design features that they knew were addictive.

Mark Lanier, the lawyer for the woman identified as KGM or Kaley, said his client suffered from mental health issues, including compulsive use, depression and body dysmorphia, as a result of her addiction. The “companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose,” he said in his opening remarks, as reported by BBC.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will pay Kaley $4.2 million, YouTube $1.8 million in damages—peanuts to the behemoth companies when you consider that Meta made US$ 60 billion in profit last year, reported The Wall Street Journal. But the award is significant in its impact on similar lawsuits. “It is likely to factor into similar cases expected to go to trial this year, which could expose the internet giants to further financial damages and force changes to their products,” reports The New York Times. Eight other cases filed by individuals are scheduled to go on trial in the same Los Angeles court where Kaley’s was held.

The verdict is the second in a week. In the first, a New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $375 million for misleading consumers about........

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