New Delhi, March 27 -- A jury in Los Angeles, US, has ruled that social media platforms were deliberately designed in a way that contributes to addictive use and causes harm to children. The ruling came after the now 20-year-old plaintiff, identified as Kaley, accused the tech giants of fuelling her childhood addiction to social media.

According to a report by BBC, the jury found that Meta - the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp - and Google, which owns YouTube, "acted with malice, oppression, or fraud" in the operation of their platforms.

The court has awarded Kaley a total of $6 million (£4.5 million) in damages, including $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $3 million in punitive damages. Meta ...