For the first time, a jury will hear testimony on Wednesday from a young woman who alleges social media companies intentionally create addictive products, harming children. The witness taking the stand, known by her initials KGM, is the lead plaintiff in an expansive lawsuit against Meta – which owns Instagram and Facebook – and YouTube currently at trial in Los Angeles.
KGM, who is now 20, alleges that she became addicted to social media apps before she was 10 and would spend hours every day scrolling through photos and videos. This led to years of mental health issues, according to her lawyers and court documents.
KGM is expected to testify about how her constant use of social media led to depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia. According to court documents, her mother attempted to block her use of the apps to no avail. She “developed a compulsion to engage with those products nonstop”, due to their “addictive design” and “constant notifications”, her lawsuit says.
This trial is the first in a consolidated group of cases in Los Angeles superior court brought against the social media companies on behalf of more than 1,600 plaintiffs, including more than 350 families and 250 school districts. KGM’s case is also the first of more than 20 “bellwether” trials, which are used to gauge juries’ reactions and potential verdicts, as well as set legal precedent.
TikTok and Snap were originally named as defendants in KGM’s case, but days before the trial began last month, both companies reached settlement agreements with the plaintiffs, the terms of which have not been publicly disclosed.
Meta and YouTube deny wrongdoing in the case. The former said in a statement: “These lawsuits misportray our company and the work we do every day to provide young people with safe, valuable experiences online.” YouTube spokesperson José Castañeda called the allegations in the lawsuits “simply not true” and said that providing young people with a “safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work”.
Before KGM’s testimony on Wednesday, youth leaders, online safety advocates and parents held a press conference on the courthouse steps. Lennon Torres, the campaigns and program manager for advocacy group Heat Initiative, emphasized the importance of the first-of-a-kind trial.
“Let me be very clear about one thing: the verdict in this case is not the point. That is not justice. This is justice,” Torres said, according to NBC News. “We have found a microphone and a voice that breaks through their predatory algorithms, and we will be heard.”
Along with KGM, jurors will also hear from her mother Karen and sister Keanna, as well as her therapist Victoria Burke.
Over the course of the trial, KGM’s lawyers have called to the witness stand Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta; Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, and Cristos Goodrow, the vice-president of engineering at YouTube.
Zuckerberg said during his testimony last Wednesday that Meta had improved in identifying underage users, but he added: “I always wish that we could have gotten there sooner.” He said some users lie about their age when joining Instagram and that the company removes those it identifies as underage. The plaintiffs’ lawyers hit back at those claims: “You expect a nine-year-old to read all of the fine print? That’s your basis for swearing under oath that children under 13 are not allowed?”
When Mosseri took the stand a week earlier, he pushed back on the science behind social media addiction, denying that users could be “clinically addicted”. He described children’s high usage of Instagram as “problematic use” – similar to “watching TV for longer than you feel good about”.
Psychologists do not classify social media addiction as an official diagnosis, but researchers have documented the harmful consequences of compulsive use among young people, and lawmakers around the world repeatedly voiced concern about social networks’ addictive potential.
KGM’s lawyers are expected to wrap their arguments in the coming days and then Meta and YouTube’s lawyers will present their cases.
