Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Finally Face Their Day in Court Over Whether They Peddle Addictive Products to Kids

Three of the world’s largest tech firms are set to face a landmark trial in Los Angeles this week over allegations that their platforms—Meta’s , ByteDance’s TikTok, and Google’s —intentionally hook and harm children.

Jury selection begins this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. This marks the first time the companies will present their case to a jury, and the result could significantly impact their operations and how they manage child users. The selection process is anticipated to take at least several days, with 75 prospective jurors being questioned daily through at least Thursday. Snap Inc., the parent company of and a fourth defendant in the lawsuit, reached a settlement last week for an unknown amount.

At the heart of the case is a 19-year-old referred to only by the initials “KGM,” whose lawsuit could shape the outcome of thousands of similar cases against social media companies. She and two other plaintiffs have been chosen for bellwether trials—basically test cases that let both sides gauge how their arguments land with a jury and what damages, if any, might be awarded, explained Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

KGM alleges that her early use of social media led to an addiction to the technology and worsened her depression and suicidal ideation. Critically, the lawsuit asserts that this was the result of intentional design decisions by the companies, which aimed to make their platforms more addictive to children in order to increase profits. If this argument prevails, it could bypass the companies’ First Amendment protections and , which shields tech firms from liability for third-party content 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 slated to testify in the trial, which will run for six to eight weeks. Experts have compared the case to the Big Tobacco trials that resulted in a 1998 settlement forcing cigarette companies to pay billions in healthcare costs and limit marketing to 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 reject the claims that their products intentionally harm children, pointing to a host of safeguards they’ve implemented over the years and arguing they aren’t responsible for third-party content on their sites.

“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.”

Meta, YouTube, and TikTok did not promptly reply to requests for comment on Monday.

This case is the first in a wave of lawsuits starting this year that aim to hold social media companies accountable for damaging children’s mental health. A federal bellwether trial starting in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to children.

Additionally, more than  have been filed against Meta, alleging it harms young people and contributes to the youth mental health crisis by intentionally designing Instagram and Facebook features that addict children to its platforms. Most cases were filed in federal court, though some were brought in state courts.

 also faces comparable lawsuits in over a dozen states.