The world's largest social media companies have been accused of creating addiction machines as a landmark trial began in California examining the mental health effects of Instagram and YouTube.
In his opening argument before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl and a jury, Mark Lanier argued that his client, plaintiff K.G.M., suffered from mental health issues as a result of her social media addiction.
These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose, Lanier said.
Lawyers for Meta and YouTube told the jury that K.G.M.'s addiction stemmed from other issues in her life, not their negligence.
K.G.M. will be referred to by her initials, or as Kaley G.M., because the alleged harms took place when she was a minor.
Lanier also charged that Meta and YouTube failed to warn of the dangers to young users posed by the design of their platforms.
Lanier underscored his opening remarks by speaking with a display of children's blocks in front of him: the words Addicting, Brains and Children appeared next to the letters A, B, and C.
This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children's brains, Lanier said. I'm going to show you the addiction machine that they built, the internal documents that people normally don't get to see, and emails from [Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg and YouTube executives.
In a selected portion of a 2015 email Lanier showed the court, Zuckerberg demanded that time spent increases by 12% on Meta platforms in order to meet internal business goals.
As for YouTube, Lanier said the platform, owned by Google, intentionally targeted young users because it could charge advertisers more compared to its YouTube Kids platform.
Lanier then accused YouTube of trying to take advantage of busy parents looking for a digital babysitting service.
When it was Meta's turn to make an opening statement, attorney Paul Schmidt pointed the jury to the question of whether Instagram was a substantial factor in K.G.M's mental health struggles. He portrayed K.G.M as someone dealing with family turmoil, including neglect, physical and verbal abuse, and bullying by her parents.
Schmidt told the jury he admired K.G.M because she worked hard to overcome her struggles, referencing records describing domestic violence in K.G.M's family history and early therapy.
The proceedings marked the first day of a trial poised to last six weeks, with implications for numerous similar lawsuits across the country.
The Los Angeles trial will test legal arguments from families claiming their children suffered due to social media use, while the platforms reject liability for user content.
Over the course of the trial, testimonies are expected from experts, family members who have lost children, and executives from the companies involved, potentially setting precedents for future cases.
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