Making Social Media Safer: How Lawsuits Are Changing the Game with Matt Bergman

As courts increasingly examine the impact of social media on young people, new legal approaches are beginning to reshape how responsibility for harms are understood, shifting the focus from content to platform design. On this special episode of Screen Deep, host Kris Perry speaks with Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, professor of Lewis & Clark Law School, and a member of Children and Screens’ Scientific Advisory Board. Bergman also served on the legal team representing the plaintiff in a landmark case examining the impact  of social media platform design on youth.

Together, Kris and Matt explore why it has historically been difficult to bring lawsuits against technology companies, how recent litigation strategies are more effective than past efforts, and what these developments could mean for the future of platform accountability.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why social media companies have historically avoided accountability for harm encountered through their products, and how that may be changing 
• How recent lawsuits have uncovered key internal evidence that social media platforms were designed to be addictive to young users despite known risks 
• How legal experts are using scientific research and product liability law to help define harms to youth and establish social media platform accountability
• Why recent lawsuits are focusing on social media platform design rather than content, and why that matters 
• Why legislative change is needed to assist the effort to enforce social media platform transparency and accountability

For more resources and research on this topic visit the Learn and Explore section of the Children and Screens website (https://www.childrenandscreens.org)

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Music: 'Life in Silico' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au