AG Coleman: We’ve launched a new battle against a different type of addiction | Opinion

For more than a decade, the fight against opioid addiction has been all-consuming. Progress has come – not enough and far too slowly – but every life saved makes the effort worthwhile.

Today, we have a new fight: protecting kids from the dangers facing them on their screens. Different addiction, but the same urgency.

Last month, we finally won a pair of major victories.

New Mexico won an historic jury verdict against Meta – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – accusing the corporation of creating a breeding ground for child predators. The first phase of the trial, which put executives from one of the world’s largest corporations on the stand, ended with an order for Meta to pay $375 million. The second phase is scheduled for May and will bring court orders to prevent future harm perhaps including additional monetary payments.

Then, a separate California jury found Meta and YouTube deliberately designed their apps to be addictive and damaging to young people. In that case, Meta will have to pay millions more.

The harm to our kids caused by Meta and other online platforms is both hard to quantify and something every parent can understand. Endless scrolling and dopamine-driven ‘like’ buttons suck our children in and never let them go. Innocent kids and their developing brains face off against the most sophisticated tech programmers on the planet. Our kids never really had a chance.

Accountability for these major social media platforms doesn’t end with these verdicts. Kentucky is part of a 29-state coalition litigating against Meta in federal court, and we’re set to go to trial later this year.

A brief history lesson: to counter the opioid addiction threat, Kentucky took major corporations responsible for the crisis to court to make them answer for the deaths caused and communities ravaged. Our commonwealth will receive more than $1 billion in settlements to invest in prevention, treatment and recovery efforts.

To make progress in the fight against drug addiction, we went after all parts of the industry – the manufacturers, distributors, marketers and the pharmacies themselves.

In this social media effort, we are casting a similarly broad net. In addition to Meta, we’ve filed cases against Google, TikTok and Roblox for creating addiction and exploitation machines.

Roblox is a particularly dangerous online environment for our children. Nearly two-thirds of all American kids ages 9-12 play games on Roblox. It has more monthly users than the population of the United States. Roblox’s cartoonish features hide a truly sinister reality.

Despite repeated attempts to make the platform take child exploitation seriously, Roblox has allowed itself to become a playground for predators and a host for the foulest content – from Charlie Kirk assassination simulators to a game depicting a mass shooting in a shopping mall.

Kentucky was one of the first states to drag Roblox into court to answer for its abuses. And we’re by no means the last. As more heart-wrenching stories of grooming, kidnapping and self-harm come to light, we’ll keep up this fight. Along the way, I’ll continue encouraging parents to get their kids off Roblox until it can be made safe.

Despite the various social media platforms’ differences, they all share a common priority: profit over safety. Each of them could strengthen safety protocols, enforce age verification, and end unnecessary chat features. The result would be tremendous progress in keeping kids safe from predators online.

Until they do, we will continue taking these massive tech companies to court and holding them accountable for this generational harm.

Although we are zealously pursuing our lawsuits, this fight won’t be won in the courtroom alone. We are proud to work with leading advocates and policymakers in Frankfort and Washington – including our Congressmen Brett Guthrie who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Jamie Comer, leader of the House Oversight Committee.

As always, parents are the last and best line of defense for our children. Armed with the truth about the dangers facing kids online, it’s the responsibility of parents to set reasonable safeguards for their kids and help them develop, learn and grow in the real world away from screens.

This is the new fight of our time, and we’re ready. The victories last month in New Mexico and California won’t be the last.

Russell Coleman is the Kentucky Attorney General. The AG’s Office has launched lawsuits against Roblox, TikTok, Meta and other social media platforms to keep Kentucky kids safe online.