Designed to 'exploit' children: Meta faces a historic courtroom reckoning

Meta knowingly hooked and exploited children, a United States federal court has heard in the trial of the social media giant on charges that it deliberately made Instagram and Facebook addictive to young users.

In what many experts have called social media's "big tobacco moment," a coalition of US states is demanding Meta pay US$200 billion ($282 billion) in penalties for using technology specifically designed to foster addiction among children in a similar fashion to cigarettes.

Meta "exploited how kids' brains work," California prosecutor Megan O'Neill said in opening arguments, painting Meta's business model as one built 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," O'Neill 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, acknowledged that some users were harmed by the networks, but argued that the company had "tried to come up with tools to help them". He argued research showed no clear link between adolescents' social media use and a lack of well-being.

He also said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's co-founder and CEO, shared the company's desire to improve its services, and not make them dangerous.

"They don't believe they're going to do well if people don't like their service," Schmidt said.

Before the trial began, the company denied all the allegations, insisting it had worked with parents, experts and law enforcement to incorporate protective safeguards for children.

Mothers rally

This is not the first case seeking to hold tech companies — including Meta — accountable for these types of issues, but it could become one of the most consequential if it leads to sweeping changes on the platforms.

Meta founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg is among the star witnesses expected to testify, along with Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

Activists, including mothers of children they say were driven to suicide by their social media usage, rallied outside court.

One mother, Lori Schott, called out Zuckerberg and Mosseri, saying they "built one of those most powerful and richest companies in the world... But power does not excuse harm."

First of many?

This is the first federal trial in what is expected to be a tidal wave of lawsuits also targeting TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as families, educators and state governments charge them with harming the mental health of young people.

Meta, which has more than three billion users worldwide, is the sole defendant in this case.

In addition to financial penalties, the states are demanding changes to Meta's apps to protect young users, including limits to screen time.

Four states — California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey — are representing a coalition of 29 states that first sued Meta in 2023.

The charges are three-fold: that Meta lied to the public about how dangerous its apps are for minors; designed some features specifically to get them hooked and stay online, including screen time-limiting ones that are easy to get around; and gathered data on children under age 13 without parental consent, in violation of federal law.

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

For Meta, "the huge issue here is reputational harm" and being forced to make major changes to its social media platforms, Vincent Joralemon, a director at Berkeley's Life Sciences Law and Policy Center, told the Agence-France Presse news agency.

Experts see parallels with a three-decade-old settlement between dozens of US states and tobacco companies.

"It really feels like tobacco in the 1990s," Joralemon said.

While cases about social media harms revolve around the intersection of technology and addiction, the case against Meta focuses on its business practices, similar to when US regulators sued tobacco companies, Joralemon said.

Dozens of US states sued four major tobacco companies for downplaying the harmful health impacts of their products, and won a 1998 landmark settlement that included financial penalties and changes to product marketing.

Those tobacco companies have paid over US$176 billion ($248 billion) since, according to data from the National Association of Attorneys General.

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