States' Child Safety Trial Against Meta Opens in Federal Court

A landmark trial began Tuesday in Oakland, California, pitting Meta Platforms against a coalition of states that accuse the company of designing Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to minors and misleading the public about the risks.

"Meta's business model can be summed up in four simple words: 'hook' the users, 'hold' them for as long as they can, 'harvest' their data, and then 'hide' the truth from the public when making public statements," California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill said in her opening statement. "It was especially bad for kids."

Lawyers for California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey say Meta built algorithms that "encourage compulsive use" through features like infinite scroll, photo filters and the "like" button, and that it violated the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting data on children under 13 without parental consent.

Meta has denied the allegations. In a statement to NPR, the company said the states' claims are unsubstantiated and pointed to protections it has added for teens, including enhanced privacy settings and a one-hour usage timer on Instagram. Meta attorney Paul Schmidt told the eight-member advisory jury that the states were cherry-picking data and statements out of context, and argued the company has made meaningful efforts to address risks to young people.

O'Neill cited internal Meta communications, including a 2016 email describing "teen time spent" as an "overall company goal," and a study titled "Long Term Retention: The Young Ones Are The Best Ones" that found users who start young are more likely to stay and generate revenue. "Meta said it prioritized safety over profits, but it hid the reality that when it came time to make a decision, time and again profits won," O'Neill said.

An initial state estimate put potential penalties as high as $1.4 trillion, roughly Meta's entire market value, though Meta has challenged that figure and California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the states are not seeking a specific dollar amount.

Meta has already lost two related cases this year: a Los Angeles jury awarded $6 million in March over a young woman's compulsive use of social media, and a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million over failing to protect young users from child sexual exploitation. "If the current trend continues, they'll lose again," Bonta told NPR, adding he believes Meta can redesign its products to be safer "and still be wildly successful as a business."