Executive Summary
This memo evaluates the viability of a trade nonfiction book tentatively titled Digital Harms, authored by the attorneys of the Schenk Law Firm. The book would address the epidemic of technology-driven injuries to young people, including social media addiction, AI-induced psychosis, and underage online gambling, told from the perspective of plaintiff's lawyers actively litigating these cases.
The market timing is exceptional, the competitive gap is clear, and the firm's credentials are strong. No plaintiff's attorney has yet published a general-audience book on digital harms litigation. The first to do so will own the category.
Book Concept
Working Title
Digital Harms: A Trial Lawyer's Fight to Protect Children in the Age of Algorithms
Alternative titles for consideration:
- Designed to Addict: Inside the Legal Battle Against Big Tech
- The Digital Defendant: How the Law Is Catching Up to Silicon Valley
- Wired to Fail: The Case Against Tech's War on Children
Description
A narrative nonfiction book that combines courtroom storytelling, investigative reporting on tech industry practices, and practical guidance for families. The book draws on the authors' firsthand experience litigating against social media platforms, AI companies, and online gambling operators to tell the larger story of how digital products are engineered to exploit young people, and what the law is finally doing about it.
Core Thesis
Digital harms to children are not accidents or side effects. They are the predictable result of design choices made by technology companies that prioritized engagement and revenue over safety. The legal system is now treating these products the same way it treated tobacco, opioids, and asbestos: as defective products with known dangers, sold without adequate warnings, by companies that concealed the risks.
Three Pillars
Pillar 1: Social Media Addiction
The MDL 3047 litigation, platform design features (infinite scroll, variable reward loops, algorithmic amplification), internal documents showing companies knew about harms, and the human stories of families affected.
Pillar 2: AI Psychosis and Chatbot Harms
The Character.AI/Sewell Setzer case and its settlement, the emerging clinical recognition of AI-induced psychosis, chatbots that encourage self-harm or medication noncompliance, the lack of guardrails for minors, and the broader question of anthropomorphized AI relationships.
Pillar 3: Underage Online Gambling
The convergence of sports betting legalization, social casino apps, loot boxes and microtransactions in gaming, skin gambling, and the deliberate targeting of minors through advertising and design. Benjamin's expertise and NY Post feature as a launchpad.
Connective Thread: Related Digital Harms
Woven throughout: sextortion, deepfakes targeting minors, predatory dark patterns in children's apps, data harvesting of minors, and cyberbullying/online harassment. These are presented not as separate chapters but as part of the same ecosystem of exploitation.
Market Analysis
The Macro Moment
This is a once-in-a-generation convergence of legal, legislative, and cultural attention on digital harms:
- MDL 3047 bellwether trials begin June 15, 2026 (school district claims) and August 6, 2026 (state AG claims), with 2,300+ consolidated cases. This will dominate national news coverage.
- Character.AI/Google settlement (January 2026) over teen suicide brought AI safety into mainstream consciousness.
- State legislative wave: Dozens of states passed children's online safety laws in 2024-2025, with more pending in 2026.
- AI psychosis is now a recognized clinical phenomenon, with peer-reviewed research published in JMIR Mental Health and coverage in Psychology Today, RAND Corporation reports, and APA podcasts.
- Australia banned social media for under-16s in 2024, partly citing Jonathan Haidt's work, signaling global momentum.
- Teen gambling crisis is receiving sustained media attention, with the NCPG publishing updated youth gambling factsheets and major outlets covering the issue.
Audience
Primary: General adult readers, particularly parents of children ages 8-18, who are concerned about their children's relationship with technology. This is the same audience that made The Anxious Generation a multi-million copy bestseller.
Secondary: Journalists covering tech accountability, policymakers working on children's online safety legislation, plaintiff's attorneys evaluating digital harms practice areas, and educators/school administrators.
Tertiary: Judges, law clerks, and legal academics following the evolution of product liability doctrine in the digital context.
Competitive Landscape
Direct Competitors (Books on Digital Harms to Youth)
| Title | Author | Year | Angle | Copies / Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Anxious Generation | Jonathan Haidt | 2024 | Social psychology | 2M+ copies, #1 NYT, 52 weeks on list |
| 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World | Jean Twenge | 2025 | Developmental psychology / parenting | Major release (Simon & Schuster) |
| The Amazing Generation | Haidt & Catherine Price | 2025 | Tween handbook companion | Companion to Anxious Generation |
Adjacent Competitors (Tech Accountability / Digital Life)
| Title | Author | Angle |
|---|---|---|
| Stolen Focus | Johann Hari | Attention economy, broad audience |
| The Age of Surveillance Capitalism | Shoshana Zuboff | Academic, data exploitation |
| Irresistible | Adam Alter | Behavioral addiction to technology |
| Dopamine Nation | Anna Lembke | Addiction neuroscience |
Legal / Practitioner Books (Not Trade)
| Title | Publisher | Angle |
|---|---|---|
| A Lawyer's Guide to Mass Torts | Jacob Malherbe | Practice-building guide |
| The Plaintiff Lawyer's Playbook | Trial Guides | Trial strategy |
| Various ABA titles | ABA Publishing | Academic / practitioner |
The Gap
No existing book combines all three of these elements:
- Firsthand plaintiff's litigation experience against tech companies
- Narrative storytelling accessible to a general audience
- Coverage of the full spectrum of digital harms (social media + AI + gambling)
Haidt writes as a researcher. Twenge writes as a psychologist. Hari writes as a journalist. Nobody has written as the lawyer in the courtroom holding these companies accountable. This is the book's unique selling proposition.
The closest analogy is what happened in tobacco litigation: books like A Civil Action (Jonathan Harr) and The People vs. Big Tobacco became cultural touchstones because they told the legal story. Digital harms is the next chapter of that same narrative.
Author Credentials and Platform
Why This Team
Existing Platform
- Firm website with active digital harms practice pages
- $25 billion in client recoveries (credibility signal)
- Media relationships (NY Post feature, potential for more)
- San Diego base with nationwide practice
- Lynn Schenk's political connections (former U.S. Congresswoman) offer potential for policy/legislative angles and media access
Publishing Path Analysis
Option A: Traditional Publisher
Pros
- Credibility and prestige (important for "expert" positioning)
- Professional editing, design, and marketing infrastructure
- Bookstore distribution (Barnes & Noble, airport bookstores)
- Media booking teams at major publishers actively pitch authors
- Foreign rights sales potential
- Advance payment ($25K-$150K+ range)
Cons
- Timeline: 12-18 months from signed contract to publication
- Loss of some creative control
- Requires a literary agent (3-6 months to secure one)
- Authors receive 10-15% royalties on hardcover
Best fit if: You want maximum mainstream credibility, media support, and bookstore presence. The MDL trials in mid-2026 will generate the news hooks needed to sell the proposal.
Target publishers: Crown (Penguin Random House), Mariner (HarperCollins), Simon & Schuster, PublicAffairs (Hachette), W.W. Norton.
Option B: Self-Publishing (Premium)
Pros
- Speed to market: could publish in 4-6 months
- Full creative control over content, cover, and positioning
- Higher per-unit royalty (up to 70% on Kindle)
- Can time release precisely to MDL trial dates
- Can update/revise quickly as cases develop
Cons
- No advance payment
- Must self-fund editing, design, and marketing ($15K-$40K)
- Harder to get mainstream media coverage
- Some perceived credibility gap vs. traditional imprint
- Distribution challenges (no airport bookstores, limited library acquisition)
Best fit if: Speed is the priority and you want to own the timing. Works especially well if the primary goal is business development rather than bestseller-list ambitions.
Option C: Hybrid Approach
Pros
- Publish a self-published "quick edition" timed to the MDL trials (summer 2026)
- Simultaneously pursue a traditional deal for an expanded hardcover (2027-2028)
- Self-published edition serves as proof of concept
- Publishers increasingly acquire books that have proven market demand
Cons
- Requires managing two publishing tracks simultaneously
- Some traditional publishers may want first-publication rights
- Risk of self-published version cannibalizing the traditional edition
Option A (Traditional) is the strongest path for your stated goals. You want to be seen as the definitive experts. A book from a recognized publisher carries weight that self-publishing cannot replicate in mainstream media and with potential clients. The advance is secondary to the positioning value.
Immediate next step: Engage a literary agent who specializes in narrative nonfiction or legal/policy books. The proposal itself, built around the MDL trial narrative and your unique positioning, will be a strong sell in the current market.
Proposed Structure (Preliminary)
A narrative arc that mirrors the pattern of past mass tort reckoning: harm, discovery, denial, litigation, accountability.
- Ch 1 A parent's phone call - Opening with a real client story, anonymized
- Ch 2 Designed to addict - How platforms engineer compulsive use in children
- Ch 3 The algorithm doesn't care how old you are - AI psychosis, chatbot manipulation
- Ch 4 The house always wins - Underage gambling, loot boxes, skin betting
- Ch 5 The broader digital battlefield - Sextortion, deepfakes, dark patterns, data harvesting
- Ch 6 "We knew" - Internal documents, whistleblowers, the Facebook Papers
- Ch 7 The Section 230 shield - How tech companies hid behind immunity
- Ch 8 Lobbying, delay, and the playbook - Parallels to tobacco and opioid industries
- Ch 9 Building the case - How plaintiff's lawyers constructed the digital harms theory
- Ch 10 MDL 3047 and the bellwether trials - Inside the courtroom
- Ch 11 The AI frontier - Character.AI, Sewell Setzer, and the next wave
- Ch 12 State by state - The legislative revolution
- Ch 13 What parents need to know - Practical, actionable guidance
- Ch 14 What the law can and cannot do
- Ch 15 The world we want to build - Closing vision
Appendices
- Resources for families
- State-by-state legislative tracker
- How to evaluate your child's digital exposure
- Glossary of key terms
Media and Business Development Opportunities
Media Hooks (Time-Sensitive)
| Event | Date | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|
| MDL 3047 Bellwether Trial #1 | June 15, 2026 | Op-eds, TV commentary, podcast appearances |
| MDL 3047 Bellwether Trial #2 | August 6, 2026 | Continued media cycle |
| UN Digital Rights Report | March 2026 | International angle |
| State legislative sessions | Ongoing 2026 | State-level media hits |
| Character.AI settlement finalization | 2026 | AI safety commentary |
| Back-to-school season | Aug-Sept 2026 | Parenting media cycle |
Ongoing Platform Building (Start Now, Before the Book)
- Op-eds: Place 2-3 opinion pieces in major outlets (NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic) timed to MDL milestones. Benjamin's NY Post relationship is a starting point.
- Podcast circuit: Parenting podcasts, legal podcasts, tech accountability podcasts. Target shows like "Your Undivided Attention" (Center for Humane Technology), "Strict Scrutiny" (legal), and mainstream shows.
- Expert commentary: Pitch Benjamin and Fred as on-call commentators for TV news coverage of the MDL trials. CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and local San Diego affiliates.
- Congressional testimony: Explore opportunities to testify before state legislatures or Congressional committees on children's digital safety. Lynn Schenk's political network is an asset here.
- Speaking circuit: Legal conferences (AAJ, MTMP Mass Torts Made Perfect), parenting/education conferences, tech policy conferences.
Business Development Value
- The book positions the firm as the go-to plaintiff's firm for digital harms cases nationwide
- Potential clients (families of harmed children) will find the firm through the book
- Referral attorneys evaluating digital harms cases will see the firm as category leaders
- Media appearances driven by the book generate their own client intake
- The book becomes a permanent, evergreen credibility asset on the firm's website and in pitch materials
Risks and Considerations
Legal / Ethical Risks
- Client confidentiality: All case stories must be carefully anonymized or use publicly available information only. Obtain written consent from any client whose story is told in detail.
- Pending litigation: Avoid disclosing litigation strategy, work product, or privileged information related to active cases. Have outside counsel review the manuscript.
- California Rules of Professional Conduct: Legal marketing content (including books) must comply with advertising and solicitation rules. Include appropriate disclaimers. The book should inform, not solicit.
- Defamation risk: Statements about specific companies must be grounded in public record (court filings, published reports, sworn testimony). Stick to facts.
Market Risks
- Timing dependency: The book's impact is maximized if it arrives during the MDL trial cycle (2026-2027). A traditional publishing timeline may push to 2028, after initial verdicts. Mitigation: accelerated proposal process, or hybrid approach.
- Competitor entry: Another plaintiff's attorney could publish first. Mitigation: begin the proposal process immediately; first-mover advantage is significant.
- Political headwinds: A shift in federal regulatory posture toward tech companies could change the narrative. Mitigation: the book's strength is the litigation story, which proceeds regardless of regulatory politics.
- "Backlash" literature: Some researchers dispute the causal link between social media and youth mental health harms. Mitigation: the book should acknowledge the debate honestly while presenting the evidence as it stands in court.
Execution Risks
- Three co-authors: Coordinating voice and vision across three authors requires discipline. Consider hiring a collaborating writer or book coach to unify the narrative voice. One author should serve as the "lead voice" for consistency.
- Time commitment: Writing a book while running a law practice is demanding. Budget 12-18 months of part-time writing (5-10 hours/week per author). A ghostwriter or co-writer can reduce this significantly.
- Scope creep: "Digital harms" is vast. The three-pillar structure (social media, AI, gambling) with connective threads to other harms is the right framing. Resist the temptation to make it encyclopedic.
Budget Estimates
Traditional Publishing Path
| Item | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Literary agent | 15% of advance (no upfront cost) |
| Book proposal development (with consultant/writer) | $5,000 - $15,000 |
| Manuscript collaboration / ghostwriter (optional) | $30,000 - $75,000 |
| Legal review of manuscript | $5,000 - $10,000 |
| PR / media consultant (supplemental to publisher) | $10,000 - $25,000 |
| Total estimated investment | $50,000 - $125,000 |
Potential advance received: $25,000 - $150,000+
Self-Publishing Path
| Item | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|
| Ghostwriter / co-writer | $30,000 - $75,000 |
| Professional editing (developmental + copy + proof) | $5,000 - $12,000 |
| Cover design and interior layout | $3,000 - $6,000 |
| Legal review of manuscript | $5,000 - $10,000 |
| PR and launch campaign | $15,000 - $40,000 |
| Print run (if doing offset, not POD) | $5,000 - $15,000 |
| Total estimated investment | $63,000 - $158,000 |
Decision Framework
Proceed if:
- At least two of the three authors can commit 5+ hours/week to the project for 12-18 months
- The firm is willing to invest $50K-$125K (traditional) or $63K-$158K (self-published) in the project
- Active cases provide sufficient firsthand material to anchor the narrative (confirmed: yes)
- The authors agree on a unified voice and lead-author structure
- The team can begin the proposal/writing process within the next 60 days to maximize the MDL trial timing
Pause if:
- Active litigation obligations make sustained writing commitment unrealistic in 2026
- The firm's digital harms caseload changes significantly
- A competing book from a plaintiff's attorney is announced before the proposal is submitted
Do not proceed if:
- Ethical review identifies material conflicts between the book and pending cases
- The authors cannot align on scope, voice, or positioning within 30 days of starting
Recommended Next Steps
- This week: All three authors review this memo and align on go/no-go
- Week 2-3: Identify and engage a literary agent (or book proposal consultant). Consider agents at Aevitas Creative, The Ross Yoon Agency, or Javelin (all strong in policy/legal nonfiction)
- Week 3-6: Develop the book proposal (overview, chapter summaries, author bios, competitive analysis, sample chapter). The proposal is typically 30-50 pages.
- Month 2-3: Agent submits proposal to publishers; simultaneously begin drafting chapters based on the strongest material
- Month 3-4: Publisher auction/negotiation
- Month 4-14: Writing and revision
- Month 14-18: Publisher production (editing, design, marketing prep)
- Month 18-20: Publication and launch campaign
- Begin placing op-eds and booking podcast appearances to build author platform
- Document case experiences, client stories (with consent), and trial observations in a shared notes system for book material
- Compile a research bibliography of key studies, reports, and court filings