Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent over five hours in a Los Angeles witness stand this week, defending his company against claims that Instagram was designed to be addictive to children.
The trial is a major test case that could affect thousands of families suing social media giants for mental health damages.
A 20-year-old woman named Kaley claims she became addicted to Instagram and YouTube at age nine, leading to depression and suicidal thoughts.
Lawyers showed internal documents from 2018 stating, "If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens." Zuckerberg argued these were just discussions and that a kids' version of the app was never actually built.
Despite Meta’s policy requiring users to be at least 13, internal files estimated that over 4 million children under that age were on the platform as far back as 2015.
He insisted that while people use valuable services more often, that doesn't mean they are "addicted." He claimed Meta shifted its goals from "time spent" to providing "value" to users.
Message Us