Last week marked a watershed moment in the fight to hold Big Tech accountable for harming a generation of American children. For the first time, juries in New Mexico and California found that social media companies have designed their products to addict minors, damaging their mental health while exposing them to appalling harms.

While disturbing, these verdicts confirm what parents across America suspected and feared: Big Tech companies like Meta knowingly put profits ahead of children’s safety. The American people have had enough. Now that Big Tech has been found liable for the harms they have inflicted on our kids, it’s time for Congress to enshrine protections for American families into law by passing my bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act—and ensure these tragedies can never happen again.

In New Mexico, a jury found that Meta violated the state’s consumer protection laws by misleading parents and children about the safety of its platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Prosecutors alleged that Meta’s design features intentionally fostered addiction among minors, empowered predators to target children, and exposed children to pro-suicide and eating disorder materials.

While internal documents show Meta executives were aware of these harms, they refused to implement meaningful safeguards to protect children. Jurors determined there were thousands of violations, totaling $375 million in damages.

The state’s attorney general built the case on an investigation by the New Mexico Department of Justice, whose agents created a fictional profile of a 13-year-old girl on Instagram. According to the state, the profile was “simply inundated with images and targeted solicitations,” resulting in several criminal charges against pedophiles.

During the trial, prosecutors revealed internal messages from Meta employees who discussed how CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to implement encrypted messaging on his platforms would protect child predators from being identified, affecting the disclosure of 7.5 million child sexual abuse material reports. With its negligence exposed in trial, the Big Tech giant now claims that it will roll back encrypted messaging on Instagram—years too late.

One day after the verdict in New Mexico, a jury in California similarly found that Meta and Google targeted children with addictive features, including endless scrolling, notifications, and autoplay, turning their platforms into a “digital casino” for minors.

The case involved a young woman who started using YouTube at six years old and Instagram at nine and documented how she developed depression and body dysmorphia as she became increasingly addicted to the platforms. She testified that her addiction became so intense that she was unable to concentrate in class, repeatedly leaving for the bathroom to check on her notifications.

While Meta insists that it bars users younger than 13 years old from its platforms, the Big Tech giant actively sought out underage users. According to internal documents provided by the plaintiff’s lawyers, one company executive said, "If we wanna win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens." Another memo documented how 11-year-olds were four times as likely to return to Instagram than other apps, confirming that Meta was aware of its underage users yet did nothing about it.

It’s important to note that these findings are just from two cases; social media companies face more than 2,000 similar lawsuits nationwide, including from more than 40 state attorneys general.

One thing should be clear: Big Tech cannot be trusted to regulate itself. Time and again, tech executives have lied through their teeth—including before Congress—about children’s safety while doing everything possible to keep minors addicted to their dangerous platforms.

These verdicts prove the courts can punish past harms, but only Congress can prevent future ones. To finally hold social media companies accountable and establish guardrails in the virtual space, the Senate passed my bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) by a 91-3 vote last Congress. Unfortunately, the bill languished in the House due to massive lobbying efforts by Big Tech companies like Meta, which hired one lobbyist for every six members of Congress last year.

KOSA would establish a duty of care for Big Tech that would require these companies to mitigate certain harms to children, including sexual abuse, illicit drugs, and the promotion of suicide and eating disorders, on their platforms. KOSA would also provide parents with tools to protect their children, including options to disable addictive product features.

In the physical world, there are protections for children from harm. They can’t purchase alcohol. They can’t purchase cigarettes. Convicted child predators are prohibited from coming anywhere near a school. Yet in the virtual space, children are exposed to all these harms and more.

Americans are not interested in toothless reforms. They want accountability, and I look forward to working with all of my congressional colleagues to send President Trump a bill that finally puts the safety of America’s children ahead of Big Tech’s bottom line.