April 15 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) CEO Mark

Zuckerberg on Monday won the dismissal of some claims in a dozen

lawsuits accusing him of concealing from the public that

Facebook and Instagram were harmful to children.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in

Oakland, California, came in the sprawling litigation by

children pursuing hundreds of lawsuits accusing Meta and other

social media companies of addicting them to their platforms.

Twenty-five of those cases sought to hold Zuckerberg

personally liable, saying Meta's billionaire founder created a

false impression about the platforms' safety despite repeated

warnings they were unfit for children.

The plaintiffs argued that his public stature and outsized

role as the "trusted voice on all things Meta" created a duty

under several states' laws for Zuckerberg to speak fully and

truthfully on the risks its products posed to children.

But Rogers said the plaintiffs could not rely on

Zuckerberg's comparative knowledge about Meta's products to

establish he personally owed such a duty to each plaintiff. Such

a ruling, she said, would create "a duty to disclose for any

individual recognizable to the public."

"The court will not countenance such a novel approach here,"

she said.

Meta, which remains a defendant, declined to comment. The

company denies wrongdoing.

Hundreds of lawsuits are pending before Rogers filed on

behalf of individual children against Meta and other social

media companies, including Alphabet, which operates

Google and YouTube; ByteDance, which operates TikTok; and Snap

, which operates Snapchat.

The lawsuits say the children suffered physical, mental and

emotional harm from social media use, including anxiety,

depression, and even suicide.

The litigation seeks damages and a halt to the practices the

defendants say are harmful. Several states and school districts

have also filed lawsuits against Meta, which remain pending.