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Instagram users aged 11 and 12 are at the center of Meta trial in Oakland
At the opening hearing of the trial in Oakland, Meta argued that it had taken measures to protect children and young people on its platforms. Arturo Bejar, a former Meta employee and witness for the states, said the company had not done enough to address safety problems affecting young users.
The first hearing in the lawsuit between Meta and a coalition of 29 U.S. states took place in Oakland, California. At the center of the hearing was the question of whether Facebook and Instagram were designed to keep children on the platforms for longer periods.
California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill described Meta's approach in four stages: attracting users to its platforms, retaining their attention, collecting their data and failing to disclose the truth to the public. O'Neill argued that the company's internal research repeatedly found harm to young people's mental health, yet executives told Congress and parents that the platforms were safe.
The age of child users on Instagram
O'Neill said Meta had identified millions of users aged 11 and 12 on Instagram over the years. The deputy attorney general argued that, despite the company's policy banning children under 13, Meta had not taken sufficient steps to remove those users from the platform.
The deputy attorney general also cited an internal company study from 2021. According to the study, about one in five young people said using Instagram made them feel worse, while a significant number of users aged 13 to 17 encountered bullying, unwanted sexual advances and content involving self-harm.
Meta attorney Paul Schmidt said the same company study identified about 100,000 underage users, a figure that represented only a small fraction of O'Neill's estimate. Schmidt also rejected the view that social media addiction is a genuine clinical condition.
Safety tools in the company's defense
Schmidt acknowledged that some young people struggled to control the amount of time they spent on the apps. However, the attorney argued that Meta had responded to the problem in good faith, saying the company had offered time-management tools since 2018, added break reminders in 2021 and launched Teen Accounts in 2024.
The Meta attorney also said that 41 percent of young people in the same internal study reported positive feelings from using the platforms. Schmidt argued that the states had highlighted only the negative portion of the research.
Former employee Bejar's testimony
The states' first witness was Arturo Bejar, a former Facebook engineering director. Bejar, who later worked on safety issues at Instagram, said he returned to the company after his teenage daughter experienced unwanted sexual advances on the app.
Bejar said there was no way to report such advances when his daughter experienced them. Saying that Instagram had “turned from a product you use into a product that uses you,” Bejar argued that Meta was successful at tracking certain metrics without addressing the underlying problem reflected in those measurements.
The former Meta employee also said that safety assessments were at times kept behind product-development work.
Next steps in the trial
California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are leading the lawsuit, which was filed in 2023. The states will continue presenting their witnesses and evidence before Meta begins its defense. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri are also expected to testify during the proceedings.
The trial is expected to last about six weeks, with an eight-member jury serving in an advisory role. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide whether Meta is liable and what sanctions may be imposed.
The states are seeking financial penalties against Meta and changes to the company's platforms and applications.
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