In California, a jury said Meta and YouTube had been negligent in designing platforms that were addictive to kids. Last week, a judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay a fine of $567 million, on top of the $375 million a jury awarded in March, in a case finding it guilty of endangering children and misleading the public. A Canadian mother filed a lawsuit in California against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, alleging that the chatbot encouraged her daughter to kill herself.

That’s been noticed in Europe. In February, the European Commission ordered TikTok to change its addictive design in findings under its platform law, the Digital Services Act. A similar result came out of an investigation into Meta’s addictive design this summer.

In Britain, while new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has voiced his support for a social media ban, some industry observers say it may not be a blanket ban. Instead, the U.K. could choose to follow Canada’s proposed Safe Social Media Act, which looks to age-restrict platforms unless and until they have “adequate safeguards” in place to protect children.

“We’re actually seeing convergence on both sides of the Atlantic on the societal debate, addressing the harm online when it comes to mental health, addressing the harm online when it comes to minors,” said a senior Commission official in March, announcing a probe into Snapchat and referencing the U.S. litigation results.

Australian watershed

The December 10 activation of Australia’s ban — which prohibits anyone under 16 from keeping or making accounts on social media apps including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, X and Facebook — was a watershed for governments looking to place limits on the internet.

Elected officials quickly saw the ready-made talking points of such measures, while the public saw that something can actually be done.