In his opening argument before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl and a jury on Monday (09.02.26), lawyer Mark Lanier argued that his client, plaintiff "K.G.M", suffered from mental health problems because of her social media addiction.
He said: "These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose."
Lawyers for Meta and YouTube told the jury that K.G.M - who will only be referred to by her initials as the alleged harms took place when she was a minor - had mental health issues because of other issues in her life.
However, Lanier elaborated on his opening remarks by accusing Meta and YouTube of failing to warn young users of the dangers provided by their platforms.
He said: "This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children's brains.
"I'm going to show you the addiction machine they built, the internal documents that people normally don't get to see, and emails from (Meta CEO) Mark Zuckerberg and YouTube executives."
Lanier showed the court a selected portion of a 2015 email in which Zuckerberg demanded that "time spent increases by 12 per cent" on Meta platforms to ensure that the company met business goals.
When Meta had the chance to make an opening statement, attorney Paul Schmidt attempted to undermine the argument of whether Instagram was a substantial factor in K.G.M's mental health struggles.
He portrayed the plaintiff as somebody dealing with family problems, including neglect, physical and verbal abuse and bullying by her parents.
Schmidt told the jury that he admired K.G.M as she "worked hard to overcome" her issues - referencing the domestic violence in her family history and seeing therapists from the age of three.
On a projector, the lawyer showed statements that K.G.M had made about her home life - including that her mother screamed at her, called her stupid, and made her want to take her own life.
Schmidt told the jury: "I recognise those are tough quotes. In a case that's about psychological distress, that is what you have to consider."
The proceedings marked the opening day of what is expected to be a six-week trial that could have significant implications for similar lawsuits around the US.
The Los Angeles trial will test legal arguments from families who claim their children have suffered due to their use of social media.
Over the course of the trial, jurors will hear testimony from Zuckerberg as well as Instagram boss Adam Mosseri and YouTube chief Neal Mohan.
