By Michaela Gordoni
Meta and YouTube will finally be pressed hard in court about whether their platforms addict children.
Opening statements for the trial just started in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday, CBS News reported.
Mark Lanier delivered the opening statement for the plaintiffs. He said the case is “easy as ABC,” which stands for “addicting the brains of children.” He called Meta and Google “two of the richest corporations in history” that have “engineered addiction in children’s brains.”
Snapchat and TikTok were originally named in the suit but agreed to settlements.
Lanier provided jurors with internal emails, documents and studies that were conducted by Meta and Google, YouTube’s parent company.
Related: Is Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Liable for Causing Social Media Addiction?
One of the studies Meta conducted was called “Project Myst” in which they asked 1,000 teens and their parents about their social media use. Lanier argued the company knew children who experienced “adverse events” like trauma and stress are more vulnerable to addiction. They found that parental supervision and controls made little impact.
Google documents show YouTube is almost like a casino, and internal Meta communication saw an employee say Instagram “is like a drug” and employees are “pushers.”
“For a teenager, social validation is survival,” Lanier said. The defendants “engineered a feature that caters to a minor’s craving for social validation,” he said, mentioning “like” buttons and other features.
“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.
The trial will last up to eight weeks, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify on Feb. 18. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri testified on the 11th, ABC News reported.
Former Meta employees who quit and became whistleblowers regarding children’s social media addiction are also expected to testify before jurors, BBC News said.
José Castañeda, a Google spokesperson, said that the allegations against YouTube are “simply not true. Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work.”
Also on Monday, a trial began in New Mexico on allegations that Meta has failed to protect young people from sexual exploitation, following an undercover online investigation.
In June, a trial will begin in Oakland, California. It will be the first trial to represent school districts suing a social media giant over harms to children. Also, over 40 state attorney generals have filed suits against Meta on behalf of children’s protection.
Read Next: TikTok Settles Lawsuit Accusing It of Encouraging Social Media Addiction
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