Osterman, who lives in Colorado, celebrated the rulings while looking through photo albums at home and reflecting on what she described as the period before social media increasingly became part of her son’s life. She said the verdicts represent a turning point in how courts could treat technology companies’ design choices when minors are harmed, and she tied that message directly to the platform behaviors she says contributed to her family’s loss.
The case resonated for Osterman because her son, Max, died in 2021 at age 18 after he purchased what he believed was Percocet through Snapchat. She said Max arranged to meet a drug dealer he connected with on the app, and that the pill was laced with fentanyl. Osterman said Max was dead the next morning.
Osterman said she is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit that is separate from the cases decided this week. In her account, the legal outcomes she is celebrating are distinct from her efforts to seek compensation, but they align with her view that platforms should face consequences when the harms at issue involve children and the ways the platforms keep them engaged.
In Los Angeles, a jury found YouTube and Meta liable for harms to children, according to the same AP reporting. The jury determined that the companies designed their platforms to hook young users, and Osterman said the verdicts show the “truth is out” and that platforms must be held accountable for their design.
Meta and YouTube said they disagreed with the verdicts and may appeal, according to the report. In New Mexico, another jury reached a different set of findings involving Meta, determining that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms; Meta said it would appeal that outcome as well.
Osterman’s advocacy focuses on additional steps aimed at minors, and she is part of Parents for Safe Online Spaces, or ParentsSOS. She said the group includes parents who have lost children to online harm and that it has campaigned for the Kids Online Safety Act, a pending federal measure that would require social media platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent harm on platforms that minors are likely to use.
She also said she hopes platforms adopt stricter safeguards, including age verification technology, to prevent anyone under 18 from accessing the services. Osterman said parents can believe children are safe at home and in their bedrooms, but she argued that the current structure of social media undermines that belief.
The report also said Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., settled for an undisclosed sum in January just before the Los Angeles trial began, and that TikTok agreed to settle as well, with details not disclosed. It added that the man who sold the pill to Osterman’s son, Sergio Guerra-Carrillo, was sentenced to six years in prison on two distribution charges in 2023.
Snapchat did not immediately comment Thursday when asked about Osterman’s case, the report said. The company has previously said it uses cutting-edge technology to proactively find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts and blocks search results for drug-related terms. The report said it was not yet clear whether the recent verdicts will lead to major changes, but it noted tech watchdogs expect the rulings could encourage additional lawsuits and regulation.