Meta in court over child social media addiction

OAKLAND: Opening arguments begin on Tuesday in the federal trial of Meta, the social media titan accused of deliberately making Instagram and Facebook platforms addictive to children, with a coalition of states seeking $200 billion dollars in penalties.

In what many experts have called social media’s “big tobacco moment,” Meta stands charged with harming children by using technology specifically designed to foster addiction among young users in a similar fashion to cigarettes.

The case could be “the beginning of a broader reckoning” for Meta, Stanford law professor Nora Freeman Engstrom told AFP via email, with the company facing the prospect of having to entirely overhaul its two enormously popular global platforms if it loses.

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

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

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.

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 gathered data on children under age 13 without parental consent.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2026