"A landmark civil trial that will ask jurors to decide whether social media companies can be held liable for pushing a product that they allegedly knew was harmful to children began Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, with attorneys sparring for more than four hours in combative opening arguments. The closely watched test case could rewrite the rules of engagement for social companies and their youngest users - and leave tech titans on the hook for billions in damages."
""They wanted to capture Kaley before she even hit puberty," said Mark Lemeir, one of the young woman's attorneys. "It's addiction by design." He vowed to hammer Mark Zuckerberg - head of Instagram parent company Meta - on that point when the chief executive is called to testify in coming weeks. Despite public vows to keep kids under 13 from using its product, internal Instagram documents shown in court Monday morning depicted aggressive efforts to woo children much younger."
A landmark civil trial in Los Angeles will ask jurors whether social media companies can be held liable for creating products allegedly harmful to children. The plaintiff, a Chico woman identified as Kaley G.M., says she became addicted to social media as a grade schooler and contends YouTube and Instagram were designed to snare and retain very young users. Internal documents shown in court purportedly reveal efforts to attract children younger than 13 and incentives to move toddlers from YouTube Kids to the main platform. Meta faces testimony from Mark Zuckerberg; TikTok and Snap settled to avoid trial. The companies deny mischaracterizations of internal materials.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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