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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom to respond to allegations that Meta deliberately engineered Instagram to addict children, The Associated Press reported.
Zuckerberg also responded to allegations that the social media giant deliberately targeted tweens and teens with strategies to boost their use time, triggering mental health crises.
The landmark trial, filed on behalf of a young woman identified by the initials KGM, or “Kaley,” is the first of more than 1,500 similar lawsuits to be heard by a jury.
Kaley began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9. By age 16, she was spending up to 16 hours a day on Instagram — despite her mother’s efforts to stop it.
Her attorneys said the platform’s intentionally addictive design led Kaley to develop anxiety, body dysmorphia, suicidal thoughts, and to experience bullying and sextortion, CNN reported.
Meta’s attorneys argued in opening statements that Kaley’s mental health struggles couldn’t be blamed on social media. They alleged the issues were the outcome of a turbulent home life, and that she turned to their platforms to cope with them.
The case was selected as a bellwether trial, meaning its outcome will likely affect the course of thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies.
TikTok and Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., also defendants, settled the case, leaving Meta and YouTube as the remaining defendants. Settlement terms were not disclosed.
The trial is expected to last several weeks. Former Meta employees who spoke out about company practices are expected to testify, according to the BBC.
Only a fraction of kids and teens use Instagram’s age-verification process
Attorney Mark Lanier, who represents Kaley, questioned Zuckerberg about his attempts to get users to spend more time on his company’s platforms.
The BBC reported that in 2015, in emails to Meta executives, Zuckerberg set a goal to reverse a declining “teen trend” by increasing by 12% “time spent” on the app.
Lanier said these emails were written when Kaley was just 9 or 10 years old and already on Instagram.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the practice but claimed it no longer reflects how the company operates.
He also said that people naturally use things more when they find them valuable. Lanier countered that addicts also increase their use over time.
“I don’t know what to say to that,” Zuckerberg said.
The AP reported that Lanier spent much of his time asking Zuckerberg about the company’s age-verification policies. Zuckerberg said Meta’s policy restricts users under age 13, and that the company tries to detect users who lie about their age.
However, Lanier showed that in 2015, Instagram internally estimated the platform had 4 million users under age 13 — about 30% of U.S. children between ages 10-12, Wired reported.
An analysis by the Knight-Georgetown Institute, based on Meta’s own internal records, also revealed that as of March 2025, only a tiny fraction of young Instagram users were actually enrolled in Meta’s parental oversight tool — even though the company touts it as central to Meta’s safety strategy.
This pattern of internal tracking of risks and user vulnerability, combined with carefully managed public messaging, amounts to a calculated deception of parents and regulators, critics said.
“You see a sophisticated system of tracking risks, mitigations and use, and we see platforms communicating less about those sorts of hard metrics when they announce or communicate about safety tools,” Peter Chapman, associate director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute, told CNN.
Zuckerberg’s courtroom appearance follows last week’s testimony from Instagram chief Adam Mosseri. He insisted under oath that social media cannot be considered “clinically addictive,” CNN reported. Even 16 hours of Instagram use in a single day did not show an addiction, Mosseri said.
Mosseri portrayed Instagram as a company deeply invested in the welfare of its young users, arguing that sacrificing user well-being for short-term profit would ultimately hurt the business.
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Families seek accountability as legal battles against Meta spread nationwide
Legal experts who spoke with CNN said the case will hinge on whether the jury finds Meta’s safety efforts reasonable — or if they represent a systematic effort to appear responsible while continuing to target the most vulnerable users.
The many families of victims who traveled to Los Angeles hope the trial will lead to accountability for these companies.
Julianna Arnold, whose 17-year-old daughter Coco died after a predator she met on Instagram sold her a fentanyl-laced pill, attended Wednesday’s court proceedings.
“These trials are so important to us because they’re finally going to hold these tech companies accountable for their knowledge, their design,” Arnold told CNN, “and the trade-offs they made at the risk of our own children being harmed.”
Meta is facing lawsuits for similar issues across the country, including in New Mexico, where the company is accused of failing to protect children on Facebook and Instagram from sexual exploitation.
Later this year, the first of hundreds of lawsuits brought by school districts against social media companies is set to go to trial.
Related articles in The Defender
- 12-Year-Old Died by Suicide 3 Weeks After Starting Prozac, Mother Blames Social Media and Antidepressants
- ‘Addictive Use’ of Screens Linked to Higher Risk of Suicide in Kids, Study Finds
- Kids Who Get Cellphones Before Age 12 at Higher Risk of Obesity, Depression, Poor Sleep
- Big Tech’s ‘Sinister Agenda’ Behind Getting Kids Hooked on Technology
- Snapchat is Addictive and Bad for Kids’ Mental Health. Company Officials Know It, Emails Show
