Meta, the company behind Instagram and Facebook, has spent years in courtrooms arguing that its platforms are safe and not addictive for kids. But local governments and individuals have taken the social media giant to court, claiming that its digital products are responsible for a mental health crisis unfolding across the country. 

On August 26, 2026, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to resolve lawsuits brought by dozens of state attorneys general. As part of that deal, the company is being forced to make sweeping changes to how Instagram and Facebook work for teen users. 

But the fight is far from over. Thousands of individual family lawsuits are still pending. School districts across the country are also suing.

In this episode, attorney and consumer safety advocate Whitney Di Bona sits down with Christian Simmons, reporter for Drugwatch and author of the major investigation "Big Tech on Trial: Inside the Social Media Addiction Lawsuits," to break down exactly what happened, what it means, and what comes next.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Why lawsuits treat social media apps as defective products and how that legal strategy changes everything

• How the social media litigation is broken into three buckets: Individual family lawsuits, school district cases and state attorney general lawsuits — and where each stands right now

• The terms of Meta's landmark settlement with dozens of states: $16-18 billion and sweeping platform changes, including a two-hour daily time limit for teens, notifications disabled during school hours and overnight, a ban on cosmetic surgery filters and the option to turn off the algorithmic feed entirely

• The real questions about whether these changes will work in practice, and the parental responsibility debate that continues to divide public opinion

• The first bellwether social media addiction case ever decided by a jury — and why the $6 million verdict against Meta and YouTube matters far beyond the dollar amount

• How the algorithm creates dangerous rabbit holes, including for kids going through breakups, depression and eating disorders

• Why quitting social media isn't a realistic solution for many people and how adults are already using bricks, second phones and app blockers to manage their own use

• What Australia, the UK and Canada are doing differently and whether the US is falling behind on protecting kids

• What a global settlement for the thousands of pending individual cases might look like and the signs that suggest it could be coming

• The results of Consumer Notice’s social media survey and what it means for the nation’s mental health

If your child has been harmed by social media, you are not alone. To learn more about your legal options, visit: https://www.drugwatch.com/social-media-addiction/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=social-media-addiction

Resources & Links:

• Read the full Drugwatch investigation, Big Tech on Trial: Inside the Social Media Addiction Lawsuits: https://www.drugwatch.com/featured/social-media-addiction-lawsuits/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=social-media-addiction 

• See the Consumer Notice social media addiction survey details: https://www.consumernotice.org/personal-injury/social-media-harm/addiction-survey/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=audio&utm_campaign=social-media-addiction 

• Stay up to date on all social media litigation and news: drugwatch.com 

Note: Always consult health and legal professionals for personalized advice. The information provided reflects current research and advocacy efforts. Nothing in this podcast constitutes legal or medical advice. The opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect those of Drugwatch.

Every single day, you probably apply lip products without a second thought. But what if the ingredients in your favorite lip gloss, lip balm or lip mask were never tested for what happens when they go into your body?  And what if those same products contain microplastics?

In this episode, attorney and consumer safety advocate Whitney Di Bona sits down with Laura DiGirolamo — California attorney, beauty industry insider and founder of YOM Beauty and the Lip Service Alliance — who spent over 20 years launching innovations in the beauty industry before uncovering what she calls one of the biggest blind spots in beauty history. Lip products are classified as cosmetics, meaning they are regulated as external-use-only products. Yet we ingest and absorb them in ways that no regulation in the world fully accounts for. When Laura could no longer ignore it, she built the science, commissioned peer-reviewed research papers, founded a nonprofit and created the world's first independently certified microplastic-free, food-grade lip product to prove it could be done.

Topics covered in this episode:

• The regulatory blind spot hiding in plain sight — why lip products classified as cosmetics are held to zero food-grade standards despite being applied directly to the mouth

• Two exposure pathways regulations ignore: ingestion and absorption through lip vermilion, which behaves more like a sponge than a skin barrier

• Why 80 to 90% of lip products contain microplastics, and what regulations EU law has coming by 2031

• The titanium dioxide paradox: why the EU banned it from food in 2022 due to genotoxicity concerns, yet it remains a common coloring ingredient in lip products

• How flavoring lip products like food — vanilla frosting, strawberry shortcake, Skittles — subconsciously encourages ingestion, especially in children

• Why "clean beauty" doesn't solve the problem — and why the label has no legal definition

• What the Lip Service Alliance is doing to close the regulatory and science gap, and how to get involved

• What to look for on your lip product label right now, and which ingredients to avoid

Resources & Links:

Yom Beauty: yombeauty.com

The Lip Service Alliance: Follow @lipservicealliance on Instagram for updates and ways to get involved

Laura DiGirolamo on Instagram: @meetlauradigi

Note: Always consult with health and legal professionals for personalized advice. The information provided reflects current research and advocacy efforts. Nothing in this podcast constitutes legal or medical advice. The opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect those of Drugwatch.

What did Meta and YouTube know about the harm they were causing to children — and when did they know it? The evidence just went before a jury for the first time, and the verdict is in.

In this episode, attorney and consumer safety advocate Whitney Di Bona sits down with Nicki Petrossi, host of the Scrolling 2 Death podcast and former social media marketing executive, who spent nearly every day inside the Los Angeles courtroom during the historic bellwether trial against Meta and YouTube. Nicki took nearly 600 pages of notes and shares what she witnessed firsthand.

Meta and YouTube were found liable for addicting a young woman who began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9. The verdict is now setting the precedent for thousands of cases to follow, and families across the country are taking notice.

Topics covered in this episode:

• How Nicki went from running a global social media marketing business to becoming one of the leading advocates warning parents about platform harm

• The story of Kaley, the 20-year-old plaintiff at the center of the bellwether trial, and what she alleged Instagram and YouTube did to her mental health

• Internal documents revealed at trial, including employees calling Instagram "a drug" and themselves "basically pushers"

• How YouTube's own internal presentation stated its vision was to build a platform that is addictive

• Meta's strategy of targeting children under 13 as tweens while publicly claiming kids that age were not allowed on the platform

• Adam Mosseri's testimony comparing a teenager's 16-hour daily Instagram use to staying up too late watching Netflix

• The specific platform features alleged to drive addiction: the algorithm, infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and cosmetic filters

• Why these cases are product liability lawsuits and how plaintiffs successfully argued around Section 230 immunity

• The school district lawsuits and what Breathitt County Schools is alleging against Meta

• What parents can do right now if their child has access to a smartphone or social media

If your child has been harmed by social media, you are not alone. To learn more about your legal options, visit: https://www.consumernotice.org/legal/social-media-harm-lawsuit/

To keep up to date with some of the biggest developments in dangerous product lawsuits, sign up for the Drugwatch Newsletter. After highlighting the growing number of Ozempic lawsuits in June, July's issue will focus on social media addiction.

Resources & Links:

• Scrolling 2 Death podcast and parent resources: scrolling2death.com

• Tech-Safe Learning Coalition: techsafelearning.org

• Nicki Petrossi on Instagram: @scrolling2death

Note: Always consult with health and legal professionals for personalized advice. The information provided reflects current research and advocacy efforts. Nothing in this podcast constitutes legal or medical advice. The opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect those of Drugwatch.

Discover the alarming evidence linking glyphosate, the world's most widely used herbicide, to serious health risks, including cancer. Join attorney Whitney Di Bona and Kelly Ryerson, also known as the Glyphosate Girl, as they unpack the ongoing courtroom battles, regulatory failures and urgent need for reform in our food system. 

To learn more about Roundup lawsuits, visit https://www.drugwatch.com/legal/roundup-lawsuit/. 

Topics covered in this episode:

• The scientific consensus that glyphosate is a carcinogen and its presence in rainwater, urine and even children's bodies

• The implications of the Supreme Court case Monsanto v. Durnell and potential corporate immunity

• How Bayer's legal strategies, including legislation and industry lobbying, threaten consumer rights

• The impact of glyphosate in food through GMO crops and pre-harvest spraying practices

• The differences between regenerative and organic farming, and how soil health influences nutrient density

• The potential for regenerative agriculture to replace harmful chemical reliance

• How public awareness and consumer choices can influence policy and industry practices

• Kelly Ryerson’s personal journey from illness to activism and her efforts to raise awareness

Resources & Links:

• Roundup: Controversies, Health Risks and Industry Failures

• Stoppoison.org - mobilize against pesticide legislation

Connect With Kelly Ryerson:

• https://www.instagram.com/glyphosategirl/

• https://www.americanregeneration.org/ 

Note: Always consult with health and legal professionals for personalized advice. The information provided reflects current research and advocacy efforts. Nothing in this podcast constitutes legal or medical advice. The opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect those of Drugwatch. 

In the final episode of Big Pharma Behind the Scenes, Drugwatch Investigates explores what it would take to fix the system. Hosts Terry Turner and attorney Whitney Ray Di Bona dig into the Depo-Provera meningioma warning, FDA funding, and industry influence over regulation.

Plus, they ask the bigger question at the heart of the series: Can regulators keep up, or will patients always have to rely on lawsuits to get answers?

You can read more about Big Pharma Behind the Scenes: Patients, Profits and Penalties on Drugwatch.com here: https://www.drugwatch.com/featured/big-pharma-behind-the-scenes/ 

In this episode, we go inside some of the biggest drug and device mass torts in U.S. history. Terry Turner and Whitney Ray Di Bona explore how multidistrict litigations (MDLs) — some involving tens of thousands of lawsuits — helped expose hidden risks, uncover internal company documents and drive record settlements in cases involving Roundup, Vioxx, talc, mesh and more.

You can read more about Big Pharma Behind the Scenes: Patients, Profits and Penalties on Drugwatch.com here: https://www.drugwatch.com/featured/big-pharma-behind-the-scenes/ 

This episode of Big Pharma Behind the Scenes looks at the price of corporate misconduct and the billion-dollar settlements that keep repeating. Terry Turner and Whitney Ray Di Bona break down why companies like Pfizer, GSK, Johnson & Johnson and others keep showing up in enforcement actions — and whether fines, lawsuits and whistleblowers actually change behavior or just become the cost of doing business.

You can read more about Big Pharma Behind the Scenes: Patients, Profits and Penalties on Drugwatch.com here: https://www.drugwatch.com/featured/big-pharma-behind-the-scenes/ 

Drugwatch Investigates follows the money behind blockbuster drugs and toxic products to uncover a bigger pattern of socialized risk and privatized profit. 

The episode looks at how slow regulation, aggressive marketing, thin approval evidence and delayed transparency can leave patients, taxpayers and insurers paying the price while companies keep selling and fighting in court.

Hosts Terry Turner and Whitney Ray Di Bona interview experts to explore how advertising, orphan-drug pricing and litigation shape what the public sees — and what it doesn’t — about drug safety and value.

You can read more about Big Pharma Behind the Scenes: Patients, Profits and Penalties from Drugwatch.com here: https://www.drugwatch.com/featured/big-pharma-behind-the-scenes/ 

Hosts Terry Turner and Whitney Ray Di Bona unpack how companies plan for legal risk long before products reach patients — from trial design and FDA strategy to marketing, lobbying and bankruptcy maneuvers like Johnson & Johnson’s failed “Texas Two-Step” talc strategy. 

The episode features investigative reporters Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer on how drugmakers shape the evidence behind approvals. Cardiologist Dr. Peter Kowey weighs in on the profit motives that influence research and prescribing, while whistleblower advocate Louis Clark discusses the legal pressure companies use to silence critics. Former pharma insider William Soliman talks about how litigation, compliance and transparency factor into every launch. 

It’s a look at how Big Pharma's profits and lawsuits are often linked from the very start.

You can read more about Big Pharma Behind the Scenes: Patients, Profits and Penalties from Drugwatch.com here: https://www.drugwatch.com/featured/big-pharma-behind-the-scenes/ 

Drugwatch reveals how the legal system steps in when drug safety fails. Hosts Terry Turner and Whitney Ray Di Bona investigate new lawsuits over rare, permanent vision loss tied to GLP‑1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. This discovery uncovers a wider trend — drugs approved on limited evidence, safety risks surfacing only after millions of prescriptions and families seeking answers in court. 

Stanford law professor Nora Freeman Engstrom highlights how opioid litigation forced open the DEA's secret ARCOS database, which she calls the "Rosetta Stone" of the opioid crisis. Whistleblower advocate Louis Clark and former Merck insider William Soliman explain how Vioxx stayed on the market despite heart‑risk warnings. 

Through these stories, this episode showcases how lawsuits can serve as a shadow regulator for Big Pharma, exposing hidden data, reshaping public understanding, and sometimes, finally removing dangerous drugs from the shelves.

You can read more about Big Pharma Behind the Scenes: Patients, Profits and Penalties on Drugwatch.com