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The ruling could be the beginning of the end of social media as we know it, writes the BBC's technology editor Zoe Kleinman.
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It ruled those apps are addictive, and deliberately engineered that way – and that its owners have been negligent in their safeguarding of the children who have used them.
It's a sombre moment for Silicon Valley and the implications are global.
The tech giants in this case, Meta and Google, must now pay $6m (£4.5m) in damages to a young woman known as Kaley, the victim at the centre of this case.
She claimed the platforms left her with body dysmorphia, depression and suicidal thoughts.
Both companies intend to appeal, with Meta maintaining a single app cannot be solely responsible for a teen mental health crisis.
Google, meanwhile, says YouTube is not a social network.
But for now the ruling means "the era of impunity is over" according to Dr Mary Franks, a law professor at George Washington University.
It is hard to overstate what a game-changing moment this court verdict is for social media.
Whatever happens next, and there will undoubtedly be appeals and further legal processes, this is going to redefine the landscape.
It could even be the beginning of the end of the social media era as we know it.
The world's doomscrollers might not have been shocked by the verdict but I think the tech companies were.
Meta and Google racked up eye-watering legal fees defending this. This case, and others like it, are clearly of huge significance to them.
The other two companies in the trial – TikTok and Snap, the owner of Snapchat – settled before it went to court. There were mutterings in the tech sphere they couldn't afford the fight.
I had been invited to slick briefings about all the tools social networks offer (mainly to parents) to protect kids.
But ultimately the court ruled their measures were not enough.
Arturo Bejar, who used to work at Instagram, said he warned Mark Zuckerberg of the dange
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