Meta continues to face a series of lawsuits concerning its platforms effect on young people – their data, their mental health, and their exposure to harm and harmful conduct.

Twenty-nine US states are taking the social media titan to trail based on a lawsuit filed back in 2023 which centre on alleged violations of child privacy laws on the federal and state level.

The lawsuit has a wide scope – and a high price tag of over $1 trillion in fines – asking Meta to stop addictive features and those that might affect children’s mental health.

If the case is successful, it could see Meta forced to change some of the fundamental features of Instagram and Facebook.

The case, which is taking place before a California jury that will advise decision-maker Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers,

The lawsuit aims to prove that Meta designed its two social platforms, Facebook and Instagram, to be additive to young people, and it purposefully misrepresented the safety of its platforms for younger users.

It will also try to prove that Meta improperly collected and used the personal data of children, violating federal law.

Beyond the potential fine, which is estimated to range from anywhere between $200 billion to $1.4 trillion, attorneys will ask the judge to force Meta to make certain changes to its platforms.

These include age restrictions, removing infinite scroll, changing its algorithms, removing image filters, prohibiting video autoplay, stopping the creation of multiple accounts, and removing disappearing posts like Instagram Stories.

Prosecutors have routinely alleged that these features are designed to keep people using the platforms and get them hooked so that Meta can harvest more of their data and sell them more ads. Meta has routinely denied these allegations.

However, recent trials have seen a reckoning for social media, with a landmark case out of New Mexico aliking Meta’s platforms to “pollution” and calling the platform a “public nuisance” for their negative impact on young people and the wider public.

Another lawsuit found that Meta’s Instagram and Facebook were “addictive-by-design“, which the social media titan lost in March this year.

This lawsuit could lead to further scrutiny and set a wider president for the hundreds of lawsuits aiming their ire at social media titans for addicting their children, exposing them to grooming and harmful content, and unlawfully using their children’s data – all allegedly, of course.

Recommended reading

• UK Gov Introduces Social Media Curfews on Older Teens
• Meta Fined $567M, Deemed A “Public Nuisance” Over Child Safety Failures
• Meta and YouTube Liable For Social Media Addiction, Jury Finds

While the case is based in the US, it could have wider-reaching implications, as the UK continues to grapple with online child safety, its social media ban for under-16s, and the potential life-changing harm already afflicted to the nation’s young people.

According to a survey from consumer insights platform GWI, over half of UK adults (57%) are concerned about the impact of social media on children’s mental health, while 63% worry about their children being exposed to harmful content.

Even if the case finds Meta in violation of federal law and the judge does rule in favor of the proposed changes, a lengthy appeals process from Meta may be in the works, delaying changes further.

As the public continues and prosecutors continue to take social media giants to court, the question remains on what governments can do to regulate a social phenomenon that is already ubiquitous with youth experiences, the complexities of which regularly confound lawmakers of a different generation.