appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Reuters

Meta Platforms intentionally sought to ⁠addict children to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, a lawyer for California said on Tuesday at the start of a trial that could reshape some of the most popular apps on the planet.
A bipartisan group of 29 US states is suing Meta, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties and changes to how Meta does business.
Four lead states – California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey – accuse Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to hook young users, fuelling anxiety, depression and even suicide, and misleading consumers about ‌the platforms’ safety.
Jurors will hear claims by all 29 states that Meta violated federal law by improperly collecting and using personal data of children while they used its platforms.
Megan O’Neill, a deputy attorney general for California, told the eight-person jury in Oakland, California, that Meta’s business model was to “hook the users, hold them for as long as they can, harvest their data, and then hide the truth from the public”.
“It worked especially well for kids,” she added. “Meta needed kids, and it needed to reassure the people who cared about those kids that the kids are safe.”

Meta’s lawyer Paul Schmidt countered in his opening statement that the company and its co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a desire to improve their services, not to make them dangerous.
“They don’t believe they’re going to do well ⁠if people don’t like their service,” Schmidt said.
Jurors are expected to issue an advisory verdict, but US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will determine Meta’s liability. If she finds Meta liable, Rogers could impose civil penalties and order changes to Facebook and Instagram.
Lawyers for Meta ⁠are expected to tell the jury that the company has made a huge effort to keep kids safe online. Meta has said it did not make misleading statements about safety, and the states failed to ‌show their residents were harmed.
Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri are expected to testify. The trial is scheduled to last six weeks.
Experts have said the trial is the biggest legal test yet of social media’s effects on young users, and comes amid a broader reckoning across the globe ‌over those effects.
Meta has said penalties could be as high as US$1.4 trillion, close to the Menlo Park, California-based company’s market value.
Attorneys general have yet to specify penalties but ⁠said at a hearing last week the amount could ⁠be closer to US$200 billion – equivalent to about three years of after-tax profit for Meta.


California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey also want Meta to implement age restrictions, and eliminate the infinite scroll that encourages users to keep looking at new posts.
O’Neill said the states ‌were not trying to put Meta, or social media, out of business.
“This case is not about whether social media has some benefits for some people. It does,” she said.
But she said Meta exploited children for its own benefit, researching how children’s brains work and would react ‌to online stimuli, ‌and tracking every interaction that children had on its apps.
She showed jurors an internal email sent to Mosseri, which said “teen time spent” was the company’s goal, and said Meta employees viewed Instagram as a “drug” ‌and themselves as “pushers”.
“Meta found the younger a kid is when they start using the app, the better,” O’Neill said. “The more likely they are to remain a user, the more likely they are to make Meta ⁠money in the long run.”
In a statement before the trial, a Meta spokesman said the states’ claims are unsubstantiated and the company stands by its record of creating strong protections for ⁠teenagers.
“The AGs offer no proof anyone in their states was misled, claim benign features like having an additional Instagram account somehow harmed their residents, and attempt to penalise Meta for industry-wide challenges like age verification,” the spokesman said.
“Rather than sticking to the facts or the law, the states have instead decided to chase an outlandish payout.”

Some critics of Meta spoke outside the courthouse as ‌the trial began.
Among them was Mary Rodee, who said ‌her 15-year-old son Riley Basford was victimised by a predator on Facebook before he died by suicide in 2021.
“They call it spontaneous suicide,” she said. “I call it what it was, the predictable outcome of a system that protects corporations instead of children.”
The lawsuit began in 2023, two years after whistle-blower Frances Haugen testified to a US Senate committee that Meta knew its products were unsafe for children and knew how to fix the problem, but did nothing in favour of pursuing higher profits.
Meta and other social media companies including Snap Inc, TikTok parent ByteDance and YouTube parent Alphabet face thousands of lawsuits by states, municipalities, school districts and individuals over whether their products harm young users.
If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who is experiencing them, help is available. In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.


US House holds billionaire Leon Black in contempt over Epstein probe

China cuts US Treasury holdings to 18-year low amid global bond sell-off

Is Japan’s Okinawa finally moving past anti-base politics?

Hong Kong stocks decline after Fed raises interest rates and signals more to come

United States

Meta accused of targeting children to boost Facebook and Instagram use, as US trial begins

People hold photos of children and young adults whose deaths were related to social media use, as Meta faces a landmark trial in Oakland, California, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg attends a dinner with tech leaders hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House in September 2025. Photo: AFP

People hold up names and photos of children and young adults whose deaths were related to social media use, as Meta faces a landmark trial in Oakland, California, on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

US court allows thousands of lawsuits against tech firms over social media addiction

TikTok is among the tech firms facing lawsuits over social media addiction in the US. Photo: AFP

Meta ordered in US to pay US$567 million to address child safety harms

An art installation in Los Angeles highlights the dangers young people face online. Meta has been ordered by a US judge to pay US$567 million over child safety harms. Photo: AFP

Meta said the company disagreed with the ruling and would appeal. Photo: Reuters

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: Reuters

Zuckerberg apologises to India over child sexual abuse content on Facebook, Meta: reports

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives for a trial in Los Angeles in February over whether social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children. Photo: AP

EU demands ‘youth mode’ to protect children from addictive social media features

A teenager looks at a smartphone displaying the TikTok logo in Brussels on July 7. Photo: AFP

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attends the annual Bastille Day military parade in Paris on Tuesday. Photo: AP

News

World

United States & Canada

Tech

Big Tech

A bipartisan group of 29 states is suing the company, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties


A bipartisan group of 29 states is suing the company, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties.


Meta accused of targeting children to boost Facebook and Instagram use, as US trial begins

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A bipartisan group of 29 states is suing the company, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties

A bipartisan group of 29 states is suing the company, seeking potentially tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in penalties