January 30, 2026
EPPC Fellow Clare Morell: The truth is out about the threat to children
(Washington DC): On Tuesday, the first product liability trial against social media companies began in Los Angeles. Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube face more than 3,000 lawsuits in California alone, and more than 2,000 additional cases in federal court.
Clare Morell, fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) and author of the recent bestseller The Tech Exit: A Practical Guide to Freeing Kids and Teens from Smartphones (Penguin Random House), is a leading authority on online child protection and Big Tech’s design and business practices.
“For over a decade, child victims and their parents have been denied justice for the harms they have suffered from social media—anxiety, depression, eating and substance use disorders, sextortion, and, in the starkest cases, death. They will finally have their day in court.” – EPPC Fellow Clare Morell
Questions for Clare Morell:
- Why is this social media trial significant? How is it a landmark case?
- Can you give us a summary of the main harms to children from social media?
- What are the main arguments that the plaintiffs are making of how the social media platforms have caused harms to children? How will the attorneys try to prove this at trial?
- What are the questions that the jury will have to decide?
- What are the potential impacts of this trial? On the social media industry? On protections for children online? If it succeeds, what could this mean? If it fails, what does that mean?
More about Clare Morell
Clare Morell is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). She has has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Fox News, Newsweek, The Hill, and many other media outlets. She previously worked in both the White House Counsel’s Office and at the Department of Justice. She has testified before Congress and legislation based on her work has been passed in nearly a dozen states. (See also, YouTube playlist, X, Substack, and EPPC)
- Clare Morell, “Big Tech’s tobacco moment is here — and the truth about harming kids is out,” Fox News, January 30, 2026.
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Media Inquiries:
Hunter Estes
Director of Communications
Ethics and Public Policy Center
[email protected]
