Osterman, whose son died in 2021 after he bought drugs through social media, said the verdicts against Meta and YouTube this week are proof that juries may be willing to hold large technology companies responsible for harms that unfold through their platforms. Speaking Thursday at her home in Colorado, she looked through photo albums and said the rulings represent accountability for what she described as design choices that draw children in.
Osterman said her son Max arranged to meet a drug dealer he connected with on Snapchat and purchased what he thought was Percocet. She said the pill was laced with fentanyl and that her son died the next morning, and she said she is pursuing a wrongful death lawsuit that is separate from the cases decided this week. “The truth is out, and it’s time that they are held accountable for the design of the platforms,” Osterman said, adding, “They put profits over safety.”
A jury in Los Angeles found both YouTube and Meta liable for harms to children, concluding that the companies designed their platforms to hook young users. Meta, which operates platforms including Instagram and Facebook, and YouTube both said they disagreed with the verdicts and may appeal. The verdicts came as part of a broader wave of child-safety litigation aimed at the companies behind major social media services, including cases about how platforms are engineered to keep minors engaged.
Osterman also connected her own experience to the jury’s focus on platform design. She said she recalled “the days before social media” and described the period after, including what she called “the infinite scrolling” that she said lured her son in. She said Max used Snapchat to communicate with friends but did not realize the danger he was in.
In New Mexico, a separate jury determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Meta said it would appeal. Tech watchdogs expect the verdicts to spur more lawsuits and push for additional regulation, though it was not clear immediately whether the decisions would lead to specific changes across the industry.
The reporting also described how other cases in the broader litigation have moved through the system. Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., settled for an undisclosed sum in January just before the Los Angeles trial began, and TikTok also agreed to settle with details not disclosed. Snapchat did not immediately comment Thursday when asked about Osterman’s case, while the company has previously said it uses technology to proactively find and shut down drug dealers’ accounts and blocks search results for drug-related terms.
Osterman said she is involved with Parents for Safe Online Spaces, known as ParentsSOS, which includes parents who have lost children to online harm and advocates for regulation. The group has campaigned for the Kids Online Safety Act, a pending federal proposal that would require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent harm on platforms minors are likely to use.
As the cases against major platforms continued, Osterman said she hoped social media companies would adopt strict guardrails, including age verification technology, to keep anyone under 18 from accessing the sites. “You think your kids are safe in their home, in their bedroom, but that’s not the way it is with the current status of social media,” she said.
Osterman said she knew her son loved lacrosse and wrestling and that he was academically brilliant. She said the man who sold the pill to him, Sergio Guerra-Carrillo, was sentenced to six years in prison on two distribution charges in 2023.