A major civil trial has begun in the United States this week, with Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) and YouTube (owned by Google) going before a jury on allegations that their social media platforms were deliberately designed to be addictive to children and teens.
The lawsuit is part of a broader wave of litigation in recent years seeking to hold social media giants accountable for what plaintiffs describe as addictive design practices and insufficient safeguards for youth.
While TikTok settled with the lead plaintiff just before the trial began, Meta and YouTube are moving ahead at the Los Angeles County Superior Court, with jury selection kicking off this week.
At the center of this legal battle is a plaintiff identified as KGM, a 19-year-old from California who asserts that her early and prolonged use of social media platforms led to addiction along with related mental health struggles, including anxiety and depression.
Her lawsuit argues that features like infinite scrolling, autoplay video, push notifications, and algorithmic recommendations were intentionally designed to keep users, especially minors, engaged for longer periods, driving advertising revenue while sidelining user well-being.
Plaintiffs liken the case to historical lawsuits against the tobacco industry, where companies were found liable for addicting consumers through product design.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that similar tactics were used to make apps more compelling and harder for young people to disengage from, pointing to internal documents and user engagement data during legal filings.
More than 1,600 plaintiffs, including families, teens, and school districts, have cases consolidated in multidistrict litigation, and the KGM case is one of several bellwether trials intended to test how juries respond to these claims before a broader set of lawsuits proceeds later this year.
On the day the trial was scheduled to start, TikTok agreed to a settlement with the plaintiff, avoiding a jury decision. Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, had already reached its own settlement days earlier.
The terms of both agreements remain confidential, and both companies are expected to remain defendants in related cases.
TikTok’s willingness to settle before trial may reflect the legal pressure mounting on social media platforms, as well as the strength of evidence put forward by plaintiffs’ attorneys.
However, observers note that settlements do not necessarily equate to an admission of wrongdoing, and both companies continue to argue that they have implemented robust safety tools and controls to protect youth.
Meta and YouTube deny the core claims of the lawsuit. In public statements, representatives from both companies emphasized their ongoing investments in safety features for young users, including parental controls, time limits, age verification, and content moderation tools.
They also highlight that there is no official clinical diagnosis for ‘social media addiction,’ and stress that a range of factors beyond technology use influences mental well-being.
Meta has previously rolled out features like ‘Teen Accounts’ that aim to restrict certain interactions and add safety guardrails for users under 16.
The company says it is committed to improving user safety but disputes that platform design was ever intended to cause harm.
YouTube’s parent Google has echoed similar sentiments, saying that the platform’s algorithms are not engineered to addict young users.
More than 40 state attorneys general have filed separate lawsuits against Meta, alleging that its platforms harm young people by deliberately addicting them to social media through features that exploit psychological vulnerabilities.
These cases are currently progressing on both state and federal levels.
In June, a federal bellwether trial is set to begin in Oakland, California, representing school districts that have sued social media companies over the costs and disruption they say have resulted from youth usage.
As the trial unfolds over the next six to eight weeks, all eyes will be on the testimony from top tech executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and YouTube Chief Neal Mohan, who are expected to appear in court to defend their companies’ approaches to youth safety.
The verdict could establish a legal precedent for how digital products are evaluated for safety and accountability, shaping the future of social media regulation and corporate responsibility in the digital age.
