Merino Mother Travels to L.A. as Jury Finds Social Media Giants Liable for Child Harms

Lori Schott of Merino sat inside a Los Angeles courtroom last week as juries found Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children who used their platforms, verdicts she called validation of what she and other grieving parents had long suspected but not an erasure of what her family has endured.

"It was a verdict in a courtroom, it wasn't a victory," Schott said.

The verdicts, which came earlier in the week of March 28, marked a significant legal milestone in the years-long effort by families to hold major social media companies accountable for platform design features and algorithmic amplification that they say contributed to children's mental-health crises and deaths. Schott traveled from Merino, in northeastern Logan County, to be present for the proceedings.

Schott's daughter Annalee died by suicide as a high-school senior. After Annalee's death, Schott said family journals and whistleblower revelations helped surface the harmful content her daughter had been consuming online — content that had been invisible to parents who, at the time, lacked both the information and oversight tools to intervene. That experience pushed her into advocacy.

She is one of nine founding members of Parents Rise, a group of families who have each lost a child and who have since lobbied lawmakers, testified before legislative bodies, and pursued litigation to push for reform of how social platforms operate. Their organizing has carried them from rural communities like Merino to courtrooms and hearing rooms at the state and federal level.

The jury findings represent a legal recognition of what Parents Rise has argued for years: that platform design, not just individual content, can be a direct contributor to harm. Legislative reform debates have run parallel to the civil litigation, and advocates expect the verdicts to amplify pressure on lawmakers to establish clearer oversight of algorithmic recommendations and design features targeting children.

Schott said she wants Annalee's experience to help protect other children, a goal she has pursued from Merino to Los Angeles and back, with grief alongside a resolve that the courtroom outcome, limited as it is, gave new legal footing.