A ju­ry found both Meta and YouTube li­able in a first-of-its-kind law­suit that aimed to hold so­cial me­dia plat­forms re­spon­si­ble for harm to chil­dren us­ing their ser­vices, award­ing the plain­tiff $3 mil­lion in dam­ages.

Af­ter more than 40 hours of de­lib­er­a­tion across nine days, Cal­i­for­nia ju­rors de­cid­ed Meta and YouTube were neg­li­gent in the de­sign or op­er­a­tion of their plat­forms. The ju­ry al­so de­cid­ed each com­pa­ny’s neg­li­gence was a sub­stan­tial fac­tor in caus­ing harm to the plain­tiff, a 20-year-old woman who says her use of so­cial me­dia as a child ad­dict­ed her to the tech­nol­o­gy and ex­ac­er­bat­ed her men­tal health strug­gles.

The mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar ver­dict will grow, as the ju­ry de­cid­ed the com­pa­nies act­ed with mal­ice, or high­ly egre­gious con­duct, mean­ing they will hear new ev­i­dence short­ly and head back in­to the de­lib­er­a­tion room to de­cide on puni­tive dam­ages.