Social media giants YouTube and Meta are facing a major court battle in the United States over allegations that their platforms were deliberately designed to be addictive to children and young users.
The closely watched case, currently before a California state court, is expected to set a significant legal precedent on whether technology companies intentionally engineered their platforms to keep minors hooked for profit.
At the centre of the lawsuit is a 20-year-old woman, identified in court documents as Kaley G.M., who claims she suffered serious mental health harm after developing an addiction to social media from a young age. According to filings, she began using YouTube at six and joined Instagram at 11, later moving on to Snapchat and TikTok.
Lawyers representing the plaintiff argued that YouTube and Meta built systems that exploit the developing brains of children, exposing them to risks such as addiction, depression, eating disorders, and other psychological challenges.
“This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children’s brains,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Lanier told the jury. “They don’t only build apps; they build traps.”
However, YouTube rejected the claims, maintaining that its video platform is not intentionally addictive and does not function as a traditional social media network. Defence lawyer Luis Li argued that YouTube simply offers free video content similar to television or streaming platforms, and that user engagement is driven by content quality rather than manipulative design.
The plaintiffs’ first witness, Stanford University psychiatrist Professor Anna Lembke, testified that social media can act like a drug, particularly for young users whose brains are still developing.
“The part of the brain responsible for impulse control is not fully developed until about age 25,” she told the court, warning that easily accessible digital platforms can serve as a gateway to compulsive behaviour among teenagers.
Legal observers say the case is being treated as a bellwether trial, with its outcome likely to influence hundreds of similar lawsuits across the United States accusing social media companies of contributing to youth addiction, depression, psychiatric hospitalisation, and suicide.
Proceedings are ongoing, with Instagram head Adam Mosseri expected to testify as the court continues to examine whether social media platforms were intentionally designed with addictive features.