Closing arguments begin in landmark social media addiction trial

"How do you make a child never put down the phone? That's called the engineering of addiction. They engineered it, they put these features on the phones. These are Trojan horses: they look wonderful and great ... but you invite them in and they take over."

"How did they become such behemoths? It's the attention economy. They're making money off capturing your attention ... Every second [K.G.M.] spends on YouTube or Instagram is a second they can sell to an advertiser."

"Engagement metrics and notifications keep users hooked, adding that teenagers especially struggle to regulate their own usage because they crave social approval and lack the resolve an adult might have."

A landmark trial represents the first case where social media companies face a jury regarding responsibility for children's mental health issues. The plaintiff, identified as K.G.M., alleges that Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Snap intentionally engineered addictive features like endless scrolling and autoplay to maximize user engagement for profit. Her lawyer compared these features to Trojan horses and the attention economy model, where every second spent on platforms generates advertising revenue. The case involves over 1,600 plaintiffs, including families and school districts. K.G.M. testified that excessive social media use damaged her self-worth, highlighting how teenagers' neurological development makes them particularly vulnerable to manipulation through engagement metrics and social approval mechanisms.

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