The first major social media addiction trial has started in Los Angeles, with Meta and YouTube (Google) accused of designing platforms that function like “digital casinos” to hook children. While the defense argues that the plaintiff’s issues were caused by family turmoil, the case focuses on internal documents suggesting growth was prioritized over safety. This trial could set a legal precedent for thousands of similar lawsuits and influence global regulations on tech design.
The legal landscape for social media could change forever after a trial that began in Los Angeles this week. The landmark trial pits a 20-year-old woman, identified as K.G.M., against tech giants Meta and Google in a case that argues that Instagram and YouTube social media apps were carefully designed as “addiction machines” to hook young brains for profit.
The core of this trial moves away from what people post and focuses instead on how the platforms work. The plaintiff’s lawyers say that features like infinite scroll, autoplay, and beauty filters work like “digital casinos.” In other words, they claim that these platforms use psychological triggers like those found in slot machines to get people to use them over and over again. These practices would be especially harmful to children’s minds, finding it nearly impossible to break.
Internal documents have taken center stage. The jury saw emails from nearly a decade ago where Meta executives discussed the need to increase “time spent” by 12% to meet business goals. One particularly striking document from 2018 suggested that to “win big” with teenagers, companies needed to recruit them as “tweens.” The document noted that users who joined Facebook with 11-year-old kids showed much higher long-term retention (up to 4x times).
For YouTube, the plaintiffs presented a slideshow in which the platform compared itself to a babysitter to “capture” children under the age of four. The platform also allegedly intentionally targeted young people in order to “charge advertisers more.”
In both cases (Meta and Google), documents from 2011 show that they discussed and were aware of the alleged harmful effects of their platforms on young people.
Lawyers representing Meta and YouTube are taking a different approach. They claim that difficult conditions at home are much more impactful on the plaintiff’s mental health struggles than the design of an app. During the opening statements, the defense brought up records of family problems and domestic issues, saying these were the “substantial factors” that caused her distress.
Furthermore, the companies emphasize that they have introduced various safety features over the years, such as “teen accounts” and content filters. However, critics and state attorneys argue these measures are often superficial and fail to address the core “addictive” nature of the algorithms.
The tech companies also maintain that they provide a service and are not liable for how individuals choose to use it. They point to a federal law that generally protects platforms from being held responsible for third-party content. However, the outcome of this case could change that if the jury decides the “harm” lies in the platform’s architecture itself rather than the posts.
This trial is a bellwether. The latter means that its result will create jurisprudence that will likely influence thousands of other lawsuits filed by parents, school districts, and state attorneys general across the country. In a related move, 29 state attorneys recently filed an injunction to force Meta to disable features like infinite scroll for minors and delete data collected from children under 13.
The pressure isn’t just coming from the U.S. Globally, countries like Australia have already taken the step of banning social media for those under 16. Meanwhile, others in Europe — France, the UK, and Spain — are considering similar restrictions.
The trial should take about six weeks. There will be testimony from public tech figures such as Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube. Medical experts and whistleblowers will also testify about how social media affects the brains of children and teenagers.
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