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California woman seeks damages for mental health injuries

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Case is one of thousands claiming youth harm

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Meta CEO Zuckerberg expected to testify for defense

By Jody Godoy

LOS ANGELES, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms ( META ) and

YouTube deliberately designed products they knew would addict

children, a lawyer for a woman suing the two companies told

jurors in California on Monday at a trial that will test ​whether

Big Tech platforms can be held liable for their app design.

The 20-year-old woman identified as ‌Kaley G.M. in court is

suing Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms ( META )

and Alphabet's Google, which owns YouTube.

Kaley was hooked on social media at a young age because of

the apps' addictive design, her lawyer Mark Lanier ⁠told jurors.

Lanier said that internal company documents show that, "these

companies built machines designed to addict the brains of

children, and they did it on purpose."

Meta's attorney Paul ⁠Schmidt said in his opening statement

that Kaley's health records show a history of verbal and

physical abuse and a ‌fraught relationship with her parents, who

divorced when ‌she was three years old.

"If you took Instagram away and everything else was the same

in Kaley's life, would her life be completely different?" he

asked.

YouTube's lawyer is expected to give an opening statement on

Tuesday. ​Both companies have denied the allegations.

A verdict against the tech companies could smooth the ‌way for

similar cases in state court, and shake the industry's

longstanding U.S. legal defense against claims of user harm.

Google, Meta, TikTok and Snap face thousands of

lawsuits in California.

Meta Platforms ( META ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to be called

as a witness at the trial, which ​is likely to stretch into

March. TikTok and Snap settled with Kaley before ​the trial.

Kaley is also ‌expected to testify. She alleges the apps

fueled her depression and suicidal thoughts and she is seeking

to hold the companies liable for worsening her mental health.

Her lawyers aim to show that the companies were negligent in

their design of the apps, that they failed to warn the ⁠public

about the risks, and that the platforms were a substantial

factor in her injuries. If they succeed, the jury will consider

whether to award her ⁠damages for pain and suffering, and could

also impose punitive damages.

Meta and Google plan to defend themselves from the claims by

pointing to other factors in Kaley's life, laying out their work

on youth safety, and trying to distance themselves from users

who upload harmful content.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl, who is

overseeing the trial, instructed jurors that the companies

cannot be held liable for recommending any content created by

others, only for their own design and operation of the

platforms.

Under U.S. law, internet companies are largely ⁠shielded from

liability for ‌material their users post. If the jury in this

case rejects that defense, it could pave the way for ‌other

lawsuits claiming the platforms are harmful by design.

SOCIAL MEDIA FACES LEGAL BACKLASH

In addition to cases like Kaley's in state court, the

companies face more than 2,300 similar lawsuits ⁠filed by

parents, school districts and state attorneys general in federal

court. The judge overseeing those is weighing the companies'

liability protections ahead of the first trial over the claims

in federal court, which could happen as early as June.

Also Monday, a jury in Santa Fe, New Mexico was hearing opening

statements in the state's case accusing Meta of profiting from

its platforms while exposing children and teens to sexual

exploitation and damaging their mental health.

"It's true that in the United States that all companies have

goals to make money," Donald Migliori, an attorney for the New

Mexico attorney general, told the jury. But, he added, "Meta

made its profits while publicly misrepresenting that its

platforms were safe for youth, downplaying or outright lying

about what it knows about the ​dangers of its platforms."

Meta's attorney Kevin Huff told the New Mexico jury the

company has made extensive efforts to protect its users and has

warned about the risk of bad content on its platforms.

The wave of litigation in the U.S. is part of a global backlash

against social media platforms over children's mental health.

Australia has prohibited ​access to social media platforms for

users under age 16, and other ‌countries including Spain are

considering similar curbs.