Big tech is paying the price.

FINALLY! Big tech is paying the price for exposing young people to harm! You know, the harm they forced on kids by showing up at their house, forcing their eyes open, and holding screens in front of them for hours on end. Right?

A California jury has just handed a young woman $6 million after she sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood social media addiction.

California. The state where you can medically transition children, put men in women’s prisons, find a cannabis dispensary on every corner, and get a late-term abortion. Did I mention a jury trial in California also found OJ Simpson innocent? And now, in California, you don’t have to be responsible for your children, or yourself, online. California, the liberal progressive capital of the world, where you can be whoever or whatever you want, except accountable for your own internet usage.

Just because a court or a jury rules something, that doesn’t make it right, moral, or just.

The woman in this case is now 20. She says she started using social media at age 6 and was online all day, every day. So here is the obvious question. Where were her parents? Why did it take 14 years for this to become a problem worth taking to court? Why was there no intervention earlier?

Those questions matter. And we are not getting answers.

What we are getting is a narrative. This case will now be used around the world to justify more control, more regulation, and more state power over the internet.

But this will not fix the real problem. It will make it worse.

First, it creates the illusion of a solution. The more power the state takes over platforms, the more parents will assume their kids’ online lives are no longer their responsibility. Responsibility gets outsourced to governments and corporations that do not care and are not equipped to manage it.

Second, this will not lead to better moderation. It will lead to censorship. Social media companies will not become more thoughtful. They will become more risk-averse. When fines and sanctions are on the line, they will overcorrect. And who shapes that censorship? The state. Subjective, political, and driven by optics.

No more internet. Just an intranet. No more truth. Just approved narratives.

People are calling this big tech’s “big tobacco moment.” But look at what actually happened with tobacco. Taxes went up. A black market emerged. Lower quality products flooded in. And governments made billions alongside the companies they claimed to be cracking down on.

Overregulation does not eliminate demand. It just pushes it somewhere else.

Here is the uncomfortable truth. The internet will never be completely safe. Not for kids, not for adults. And pretending that more regulation will fix that is not just wrong, it is dangerous.

Because the real solution is harder. It is responsibility. Personal responsibility. Parental responsibility. And that is the one thing no government policy can replace.

So why do we even bother with the internet? Because it is one of the greatest tools ever created. A platform, a communication line, a force that has reshaped the world.

Its impact has been mixed, sure. But I would argue it is net positive. And its potential is far too great to ignore.

It is a tool. In some hands it is a hammer. In others, a scalpel. In others, a weapon. The tool itself is not inherently bad. The real question is not whether we trust the internet. It is whether we trust people.

Trust and responsibility. Two words that have gone out of fashion, but ones we desperately need to bring back.

And it starts with us. Be responsible. Care for your family. Care for your community. Do that well, and you might just help shape the nation.