What does neuro science tell us about social media addiction?
In August 2026\, Meta reached a landmark multistate settlement of up to $17.1 billion over allegations that Facebook and Instagram were designed t o encourage compulsive use among children and adolescents. This raised ques tions about the relationship between neuroscience\, technology\, and corpor ate accountability.
How do algorithmic fee ds\, intermittent rewards\, and other engagement-maximizing features intera ct with the brain’s reward and learning systems? And to what extent can res earch on substance use disorders inform our understanding of problematic so cial media use?
Join the Petrie-Flom Cente r\, the Center for Law\, Brain & Behavior\, and the Neurotech Justice Accel erator at Mass General Brigham for a discussion with Stephanie Tabashneck\, PsyD\, JD\, and Javier Mesa\, PhD\, JD\, exploring the neuroscience of soc ial media use and its implications for law and public policy. The conversat ion will examine adolescent brain development\, the scientific debate surro unding behavioral addictions\, and the challenges of establishing causation between social media use and mental health outcomes.
Drawing on the recent Meta settlement and emerging litigation\, the speakers will consider how courts and policymakers can distinguish sci entific evidence from speculation\, evaluate claims of addictive platform d esign\, and develop evidence-informed approaches to protecting young people .
This event will be recorded and shared a t a later date.
CATEGORIES:Speaker/Panel LOCATION:Zoom GEO:40.712728;-74.006015 ORGANIZER;CN="Lisa Gorelik":MAILTO:lgorelik@law.harvard.edu URL;VALUE=URI:https://hls.harvard.edu/events/social-media-on-trial-neurosci ence-addiction-and-the-law/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/Social-Media-on-Trial.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 DTSTART:20261101T060000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR