Meta Accused Of Hooking Children As Landmark Social Media Trial Begins

Prosecutors have accused Meta of deliberately designing Instagram and Facebook to keep children online for longer, while the company says it has taken steps to protect young users.


Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is facing a major legal battle in the United States over allegations that it deliberately designed its platforms to make children and teenagers addicted to social media.

The accusations were made Tuesday as a federal trial opened in a case that could have significant consequences for the technology industry.

California prosecutor Megan O’Neill told the court that Meta exploited the way children’s brains work in order to keep them engaged with its platforms.

She accused the company of building its business around attracting young users, keeping them online for as long as possible and collecting their data while failing to fully disclose the potential risks.

Meta Denies Deliberately Harming Children

Meta’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, acknowledged that some users had experienced harm but argued that the company had attempted to develop tools to address those problems.

Before the trial began, Meta denied the allegations, saying it had worked with parents, experts and law enforcement agencies to introduce safeguards for younger users.

The company is the only defendant in the case.

States Seek Billions In Penalties

The case was brought by a coalition of 29 US states, represented in court by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey.

Prosecutors are seeking up to $200 billion in penalties, alongside changes to Meta’s platforms aimed at providing greater protection for children.

Among the allegations are claims that Meta:

Misled the public about the potential dangers of its platforms to minors.
Designed features intended to keep young users engaged for extended periods.
Made some screen-time restrictions easy for children to bypass.
Collected information from children under 13 without parental consent, allegedly violating federal law.

The states are also seeking measures that could limit the amount of time young users spend on Meta’s platforms.

Parents Rally Outside Court

The trial has attracted the attention of parents and child-safety advocates, with mothers of children who they say suffered serious consequences from social media use protesting outside the courthouse.

One of the protesters, Lori Schott, accused Meta executives of failing to take sufficient responsibility for the alleged harm.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri are among the high-profile witnesses expected to testify during the trial.

Could This Become Social Media’s ‘Tobacco Moment’?

The case has been compared by legal experts to the historic US lawsuits against tobacco companies, which resulted in a landmark settlement in 1998.

Experts say the similarities lie in allegations that companies knew about potential harms associated with their products while publicly downplaying those risks.

The trial is expected to last about six weeks, with a verdict anticipated by October.

The outcome could extend beyond Meta, as families, educators and governments are pursuing similar legal action against other major social media companies, including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.

With more than three billion users worldwide, any court-ordered changes to Meta’s platforms could have far-reaching consequences for how social media companies design and operate services used by young people.