What Expert Witnesses Help in Youth Social Media Cases?
Video Transcript
Expert witnesses in youth social media cases commonly include child psychologists, digital forensics analysts, and social media safety or platform-policy experts. They help courts connect online activity to a minor’s mental health, verify what happened on a device or account, and explain how features like algorithms, notifications, and content moderation may contribute to harm. This article explains which experts are most useful, what each contributes, and how to select and use them effectively in litigation.
Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media
Well, I assume you can classify that health professional as expert testimony in potential future litigation because… I would ask what type of experts would be required in this particular case because it is such a burgeoning field of law. So what kind of experts would be required in this type of…
Steven Gacovino – Social Media Youth Harm Attorney – Suffolk County, NY
You know what, and I don’t know that I’m going to have all of them for you, but certainly people that understand these algorithms, because most of us don’t. Most of us don’t know exactly how they work.
So, technology experts, certainly psychological experts, addiction experts. I think that all of these are necessary. There’s a marketing aspect to these companies where they’re able to access themselves to young people and hopefully are there… and they want to create a customer for life, right? So, what marketing techniques may be out of bounds or inappropriate to use against a young person?
I think that we’ve seen some similar techniques and ideas in the Juul litigation, which was a vaping device, where people were so vulnerable to these types of devices and information was directed at young people, perhaps inappropriately, for something that was really adult behavior.
So, to get to your point, I think that mental health professionals absolutely are going need to be experts on this. And on the technology side, those are the experts that we’re going to need to say how are these algorithms working.