Mark Zuckerberg to face anguished parents at social media addiction trial: ‘It’s just getting worse’

All eyes are on Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is set to testify Wednesday in a landmark trial on social media addiction — marking the first time the tech mogul must address youth safety claims directly before a jury.

“These trials are so important to us because they’re finally going to hold these tech companies accountable for their knowledge, their design… and the trade-offs they made at the risk of our own children being harmed,” Julianna Arnold, who is suing social media platforms, told CNN.

Parents who lost children to social media-related harms at the courthouse ahead of the social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, Feb. 5. REUTERS

The trial, taking place in Los Angeles Superior Court, was brought by a now-20-year-old woman identified in court papers as “KGM,” or “Kaley,” and her mother. Kaley began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9, and alleges she became compulsively addicted — spending up to 16 hours a day on the platforms by age 16, CNN reported.

The lawsuit claims the companies “engineered addiction” through deliberate design features such as infinite scroll and autoplay, allegedly fueling severe mental health struggles including anxiety, body dysmorphia and suicidal thoughts.

The stakes for Zuckerberg — who has testified before Congress multiple times — could not be higher.

The trial is the first time a jury will decide whether social media companies can be held liable for platform design choices, potentially carving out limits to the broad legal shield tech firms have long relied on.

The ech titan is expected to argue that it took reasonable steps to protect young users, according to Kimberly Pallen, a partner on the litigation and arbitration team at law firm Withers.

Joann Bogard, whose 15-year-old son Mason died in 2019 after attempting a so-called “choking challenge” he allegedly found on YouTube, recalled watching Zuckerberg apologize to parents during a 2024 congressional hearing.

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“I thought, you can see all of these pictures of these children who’ve died in this room at once, and it’s going to be overwhelming, and it’s going to change,” Bogard told CNN. Instead, she said, “it’s just getting worse.”

“We’re all doing our best as parents, but we’re fighting these trillion-dollar companies,” Bogard added.

The case is a high-stakes bellwether — the first of more than 1,500 consolidated lawsuits to reach a jury, setting the tone for what’s to come.

The sweeping litigation targets social media giants including Meta, Google/YouTube, Snap Inc. and TikTok. Snap and TikTok cut last-minute deals, but Meta and Google remain in the hot seat — accused of putting profits over kids’ health.

A plaintiffs’ victory could spark a major reckoning for Big Tech, potentially narrowing Section 230 protections if addictive design is treated as a product defect rather than protected speech.