The Times Tech Podcast Social media ban for children and Big Tech’s Big Tobacco moment
Apr 2, 2026
Baroness Kidron, a long-time digital activist and crossbench peer who led the Age-Appropriate Design Code, discusses tech accountability. She talks about recent US rulings on addictive app design. She explores whether tech faces a Big Tobacco moment, UK regulatory moves like age checks, and the rising risks from AI chatbots.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Courts Are Treating Social Apps As Designed Products
- U.S. juries found Meta and YouTube liable for designing addictive products rather than just hosting harmful content.
- The cases targeted app design features like infinite scroll and reward systems, shifting legal focus from content to product design.
Mass Lawsuits Intentionally Test A New Legal Theory
- Around 2,600 lawsuits are consolidated into state and federal multi-case tracks to test whether social apps are addictive-by-design.
- Judges selected about 20 representative cases (roughly nine state, 12 federal) to establish or reject a new legal theory.
Big Tobacco Parallels Show Courts Can Force Change
- The tobacco analogy maps because tobacco firms had internal research admitting addiction while publicly denying it; discovery led to mass settlements and behaviour change.
- Legal pressure, not regulation alone, changed tobacco practices and could do the same for social tech.