After years of parents and safety advocates screaming into the void about the dangers of social media, we finally have something they’ve been desperately waiting for: proof that holds up in court.

This week, juries in New Mexico and California delivered landmark verdicts finding Meta and YouTube liable for harming young people. A New Mexico jury found Meta created a “breeding ground” for child predators, while a California jury determined that Meta and YouTube knowingly designed addictive platforms and failed to warn users about the mental health risks. The damages awarded weren’t huge compared to these tech giants’ valuations, but here’s the thing, there are hundreds more cases lined up. Repeated losses could mean billions in penalties and actual, meaningful changes to how these platforms operate.

Julianna Arnold, who founded Parents RISE! after losing her daughter Coco to Instagram-related harms, told media that advocates have been sharing their stories for years without seeing action. “Now we have the proof to back up and validate the stories we’ve been telling”, she said. And she’s not stopping there. Arnold is already heading back to Capitol Hill to push for comprehensive online safety legislation that actually forces these companies to prioritize kid safety.

So what changes are advocates pushing for? The list is pretty specific. First up: getting rid of all those constant nudges that keep us glued to our phones. Those notification pings, autoplay videos that start the second you open the app, endless scrolling feeds powered by algorithms, they’re all designed to be addictive. Snapchat’s “Snap Streak” feature, which punishes you for breaking a daily streak, is a perfect example of this manipulative design.

Advocates also want platforms to be transparent about their algorithms and what data they’re collecting on us. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Anxious Generation”, emphasized that we need to understand what these algorithms are actually doing. Some experts are even calling for a design overhaul that takes us back to earlier versions of social media, think Facebook around 2008, when it was basically just a messaging board to connect with friends.

There’s also talk about following Australia’s lead and restricting social media access for kids under 16, though that raises its own privacy concerns. The real game-changer, though, would be federal legislation requiring platforms to exercise “reasonable care” in protecting minors. Senators from both parties have proposed the Kids Online Safety Act, which would demand platforms protect kids’ data and offer real parental control tools.

Meta and Google are already saying they’ll appeal these verdicts and that they’ve already invested heavily in safety features. But with these court wins behind them, advocates finally have leverage. The status quo isn’t working, and these verdicts prove it.