The tech industry is facing accountability on its handling of child safety issues, signaling what could be a pivotal shift in the long-simmering battle over Big Tech’s role in child abuse and exploitation.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg endured a grueling day on the witness stand Wednesday in a landmark Los Angeles trial about Meta’s strategy to target teens and tweens. Zuckerberg was forced to defend his company’s platforms against accusations of deliberately engineering addiction among children, leading to mental health crises, self-harm, and even suicides. The very next day, Thursday, Republican West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against Apple. The suit alleges that the tech giant knowingly allowed its iCloud service to become a haven for storing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), prioritizing user privacy over child protection.

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