Social Media Lawsuits Over Teen Addiction Will Be Selected for Bellwether Trials in Mid-2025

Start of the first social media addiction bellwether trials was delayed after the parties requested more time to finish fact discovery before selecting the first claims next year.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over all social media teen addiction lawsuits brought against Facebook, TikTok and other popular platforms has instructed the parties to submit a list of potential claims for the first bellwether test trials by late May 2025, and issued an updated pretrial scheduling order that suggests the first case will likely not go before a jury until 2026, at the earliest.

Meta, Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, YouTube LLC, Snap Inc., TikTok Inc., ByteDance Inc. and other popular internet companies currently face nearly 600 social media lawsuits over teen addiction risks, which have been brought by parents and young adults across the U.S.

Each of the claims raise similar allegations, indicating that the social media platforms are intentionally designed to manipulate and maximize user engagement time, as well as the type of content they view, as part of a coordinated effort to addict teens to their apps. Plaintiffs indicate that these tactics have caused self-destructive behavior, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and long-term psychological damage among a generation of teens.

The social media platforms have been accused of intentionally ignoring the harmful consequences of their products and refusing to do anything to help address the risk of teen addiction to social media, due to the impact such efforts may have on their profits.

Last year, an MDL was established for all social media lawsuits over teen addiction brought in federal courts nationwide, centralizing the cases before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

As part of the management of the litigation, Judge Rogers has indicated that several bellwether trials will be held, to help gauge how juries are likely to respond to certain evidence and testimony likely to be repeated throughout the claims.

In March, Judge Rogers scheduled the first Social Media addiction bellwether trial to begin on October 25, 2025, and a pool of cases were identified by the parties about a month later, which have been going through case-specific discovery in preparation for this trial date.

However, according to a case management order (PDF) issued by Judge Rogers on September 18, that first trial has been pushed back, and is now not likely to begin until sometime in 2026.

The order indicates that the parties told the Court that they need two more months to finish fact discovery, and Judge Rogers approved a new pretrial schedule for the litigation.

All fact discovery in the bellwether pool now must be completed by April 4, 2025, and the parties will then identify a small group of claims that are eligible for the first trials by May 23, 2025.

Over the second half of 2025, the parties will engage in expert witness discovery and pretrial challenges to the admissibility of certain evidence and testimony. After November 25, 2025, the court will schedule a series of Daubert hearings to evaluate the reliability of proposed expert witness testimony, and hold a separate hearing on the order in which the bellwether cases will go before a jury, which is now expected to occur at some point in 2026.

Although the outcome of these early trial dates will not have any binding impact on other families pursuing lawsuits, the average payouts awarded by the juries may impact the amount the companies may be required to pay in any social media settlements over the teen addiction problems.