Arguments to begin in landmark social media addiction trial set in Los
Angeles
[February 09, 2026] By
KAITLYN HUAMANI and BARBARA ORTUTAY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The world's biggest social media companies face
several landmark trials this year that seek to hold them responsible for
harms to children who use their platforms. Opening arguments for the
first, in Los Angeles County Superior Court, begin this week.
Instagram's parent company Meta and Google's YouTube will face claims
that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. TikTok and
Snap, which were originally named in the lawsuit, settled for
undisclosed sums.
“This was only the first case — there are hundreds of parents and school
districts in the social media addiction trials that start today, and
sadly, new families every day who are speaking out and bringing Big Tech
to court for its deliberately harmful products,” said Sacha Haworth,
executive director of the nonprofit Tech Oversight Project.
At the core of the case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials
“KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of other, similar
lawsuits against social media companies will play out. She and two other
plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials — essentially test
cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury
and what damages, if any, may be awarded, said Clay Calvert, a
nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American
Enterprise Institute.
It’s the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury,
and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how
they will handle children using their platforms.
KGM claims that her use of social media from an early age addicted her
to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts.
Importantly, the lawsuit claims that this was done through deliberate
design choices made by companies that sought to make their platforms
more addictive to children to boost profits. This argument, if
successful, could sidestep the companies' First Amendment shield and
Section 230, which protects tech companies from liability for material
posted on their platforms.
“Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques
used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry,
Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design
features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising
revenue,” the lawsuit says.
Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify
at the trial, which will last six to eight weeks. Experts have drawn
similarities to the Big Tobacco trials that led to a 1998 settlement
requiring cigarette companies to pay billions in health care costs and
restrict marketing targeting minors.
“Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’
products,” the lawsuit says. “They are the direct victims of the
intentional product design choices made by each Defendant. They are the
intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into
self-destructive feedback loops.”
The tech companies dispute the claims that their products deliberately
harm children, citing a bevy of safeguards they have added over the
years and arguing that they are not liable for content posted on their
sites by third parties.
“Recently, a number of lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for
teen mental health struggles squarely on social media companies,” Meta
said in a recent blog post. “But this oversimplifies a serious issue.
Clinicians and researchers find that mental health is a deeply complex
and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens' well-being aren't
clear-cut or universal. Narrowing the challenges faced by teens to a
single factor ignores the scientific research and the many stressors
impacting young people today, like academic pressure, school safety,
socio-economic challenges and substance abuse.”
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Young people use their phones to view social media in Sydney, Nov.
8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
 A Meta spokesperson said in a recent
statement that the company strongly disagrees with the allegations
outlined in the lawsuit and that it's “confident the evidence will
show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”
José Castañeda, a Google Spokesperson, said that the allegations
against YouTube are “simply not true.” In a statement, he said,
“Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has
always been core to our work.”
The case will be the first in a slew of cases beginning this year
that seek to hold social media companies responsible for harming
children's mental well-being. A federal bellwether trial beginning
in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent
school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to
children.
In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed
lawsuits against Meta, claiming it is harming young people and
contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately
designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to
its platforms. The majority of cases filed their lawsuits in federal
court, but some sued in their respective states.
TikTok also faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states.
In New Mexico, meanwhile, opening arguments begin Monday for trial
on allegations that Meta and its social media platforms have failed
to protect young users from sexual exploitation, following an
undercover online investigation. Attorney General Raúl Torrez in
late 2023 sued Meta and Zuckerberg, who was later dropped from the
suit.
Prosecutors have said that New Mexico is not seeking to hold Meta
accountable for its content but rather its role in pushing out that
content through complex algorithms that proliferate material that
can be harmful, saying they uncovered internal documents in which
Meta employees estimate that about 100,000 children every day are
subjected to sexual harassment on the company’s platforms.
Meta denies the civil charges while accusing Torrez of
cherry-picking select documents and making “sensationalist”
arguments. The company says it has consulted with parents and law
enforcement to introduce built-in protections to social media
accounts, along with settings and tools for parents.
—
Ortutay reported from Oakland, California. Associated Press Writer
Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, contributed to this story.
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