THE NEW YORK TIMES: Lawyers argue Meta and YouTube created ‘digital casinos’ in landmark trial

In a crowded Los Angeles courtroom on Monday, Mark Lanier pulled three wooden children’s blocks from his bag and stacked them on top of each other.

“This case is as easy as ABC,” said Mr Lanier, a lawyer. “Addicting, brains, children.”

His demonstration kicked off opening statements in a bellwether tech addiction trial in which a 20-year-old California woman has accused Meta, which owns Instagram, and YouTube of building their platforms to be addictive, leading to personal injury and other harm.

The plaintiff, identified as K.G.M., became hooked on YouTube and Instagram as a child because the apps are like “digital casinos,” with features such as endless swiping that are comparable to the handle of a slot machine, Mr Lanier said.

K.G.M. represents a generation of young people who became addicted to social media, even as executives knew of the technology’s risks, he said.

“They didn’t just build apps, they built traps,” Mr Lanier said. “They didn’t want users, they wanted addicts.”

Meta’s lawyers pushed back in their opening statement, arguing that K.G.M.’s mental health issues were caused by familial abuse and turmoil, not social media.

“There is no dispute in this case that she’s experienced mental health struggles,” said Paul Schmidt, a lawyer representing Meta. “Was it Instagram or other causes? That’s the hearthstone that we’ll talk about.”

The trial in the California Superior Court of Los Angeles is the first in a series of landmark cases against Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube that test a novel legal theory arguing that tech can be as harmful as casinos and cigarettes.

Teenagers, school districts and states have filed thousands of lawsuits accusing the social media titans of designing platforms that encourage excessive use.

Drawing inspiration from a legal playbook used against Big Tobacco last century, lawyers argue that features like infinite scroll, auto video play and algorithmic recommendations have led to compulsive social media use.

The cases pose some of the most significant legal threats to Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube, potentially opening them up to new liabilities for users’ well-being.

A win for the plaintiffs could prompt more lawsuits and lead to monetary damages, as well as change how social media is designed.

The social media companies have denied the accusations, arguing there is no scientific evidence proving that their platforms cause addiction. They have also pointed to a speech shield law that protects them from liability for what their users post online.

Concern about social media’s effects on children has mounted globally. In December, Australia barred children under 16 from using social media, and other nations including Malaysia, Spain and Denmark are considering similar rules.

The European Union, Britain and other nations have passed laws limiting certain features of the platforms for children.

In the United States, dozens of state attorneys general have sued social media companies over allegations of child harm.

On Monday, opening statements began in a separate trial against Meta on social media addiction and child sexual exploitation in New Mexico.

The state’s attorney general, Raúl Torrez, sued Meta in 2023, accusing the company of allowing predators to reach children and having chatbots that harmed young people.

Executives prioritised profits over safety, Don Migliori, the litigator for New Mexico argued Monday. “Internally, Meta clearly knew that youth safety is not its corporate priority, that safety measures were under-resourced, ineffective and deprioritised, that youth safety was less important than growth and engagement,” he said.

This summer, another set of federal cases will go to trial in Oakland, California, at the US District Court of Northern California.

In those cases, school districts and states plan to argue that social media is a public nuisance and that they have had to shoulder the costs of treating a generation of youths suffering from addictive social media use.

K.G.M.’s case, which is being presided over by Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl and will be decided by a jury, is one of nine cases bundled together in state court in Los Angeles and represent some of the strongest personal injury cases among the thousands of suits that were filed.

Snap and TikTok earlier settled with K.G.M. under undisclosed terms. The companies remain defendants in the other suits.

The K.G.M. trial against Meta and YouTube, which is owned by Google, is expected to last six to eight weeks. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, and Neal Mohan, who runs YouTube, are among the executives expected to testify.

K.G.M., who is from Chico, California, and filed suit in 2023, created a YouTube account at age 8, then joined Instagram at 9, her lawyers said.

K.G.M. and her mother weren’t aware of the risks of the platforms and harmful features that led to anxiety and depression, the lawyers said. Beauty filters on Instagram led to her body dysmorphia, they claimed.

During his nearly two-hour opening, Mr Lanier presented the jury with a trove of internal Meta and YouTube documents dating to 2011 that showed tech executives knew of and discussed the negative effects of their products on children.

One YouTube presentation showed how the company courted children under the age of 4, comparing itself to a babysitter. Another document showed that YouTube’s parent company referred to some products as “slot machines” and included an image of a casino.

“These are attention casinos,” the document said. “The house always wins.”

In two instances, Meta employees said the company’s tactics reminded them of tobacco companies.

“If we want to win big with teens, we must bring them in as tweens,” said one internal Meta document from 2018. People who joined Facebook at 11 had four times the long-term retention as people who joined at 20, according to the document.

Meta’s Mr Schmidt presented the jury with health records and text messages that showed K.G.M. had been verbally and physically abused by her mother and abandoned by her father.

At the age of three, before K.G.M. had used Instagram, she was seeing a therapist for mental health issues, Mr Schmidt said.

Mr Schmidt also showed the jury medical records and testimonies from therapists that said K.G.M. struggled with anxiety and eating disorders caused by her family members.

He also cited a medical report saying K.G.M. was traumatised by witnessing her sister try to kill herself.

YouTube is expected to present its opening statement Tuesday.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2026 The New York Times Company