{"id":305658,"date":"2026-02-19T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305658\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T07:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:00:07","slug":"zuckerberg-defends-meta-in-landmark-social-media-trial-over-teen-mental-health-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/305658\/","title":{"rendered":"Zuckerberg defends Meta in landmark social media trial over teen mental health \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> has testified at a landmark trial of social media<\/a> companies on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers grilled Zuckerberg about internal complaints that not enough was being done to verify whether children under 13 were using the platform.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg claimed Meta<\/a> had improved in identifying underage users but also said: \u201cI always wish that we could have gotten there sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg also said some users lie about their age when joining Instagram<\/a> and that the company removes those it identifies as underage, according to CNBC. The plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers hit back at those claims: \u201cYou expect a nine-year-old to read all of the fine print … that\u2019s your basis for swearing under oath that children under 13 are not allowed?\u201d CNBC reported.<\/p>\n

He was also flanked by people wearing the Meta Ray-Ban artificial intelligence glasses, and the judge in the courtroom threatened to hold anyone recording with the devices in contempt, CNBC reported.<\/p>\n

After arriving at the courthouse, Zuckerberg was asked by a security guard at a metal detector if he had any metal on him. \u201cI have a gold chain on,\u201d he responded, according to the New York Post.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who argue that Meta intentionally designed its social media platforms to be addictive, questioned Zuckerberg about whether he knew of harms his company\u2019s products could inflict on young people\u2019s mental health. The plaintiffs have already made public internal documents they say prove their point.<\/p>\n

This is the first time Zuckerberg has addressed concerns about child safety before a jury at trial. Tech companies have long relied on a federal law that shields them from liability for content posted by users, but the plaintiffs\u2019 novel argument \u2013 which is focused on harmful design and not individual actors \u2013 has so far sidestepped this defence.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s apology was dramatic, but that alone won\u2019t make children any safer onlineOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The initial trial in Los Angeles focuses on a 20-year-old woman, known as KGM, who says her compulsive use of YouTube and Instagram worsened her depression and suicidal thoughts. KGM\u2019s case is one of about 20 \u201cbellwether\u201d cases \u2013 designed to be test cases to gauge a jury\u2019s reaction. TikTok and Snap settled in the initial trial but will still be defendants in hundreds of other cases.<\/p>\n

Zuckerberg\u2019s testimony comes about a week after Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri spoke on the witness stand. Mosseri pushed back on the science behind social media addiction, by denying users could be \u201cclinically addicted\u201d. He described children\u2019s high usage of Instagram as \u201cproblematic use\u201d \u2013 similar to \u201cwatching TV for longer than you feel good about\u201d. <\/p>\n

Psychologists do not classify social media addiction as an official diagnosis, but many researchers have documented the harmful consequences of compulsive use among young people, and lawmakers around the world are worried about its addictive potential.<\/p>\n

Paul Schmidt, one of Meta\u2019s attorneys, previously said in his opening statement that the company acknowledged KGM\u2019s mental health issues but disputed that Instagram played a significant role in exacerbating them. He cited medical records to suggest the primary issue was a difficult home life, instead.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Zuckerberg fielded similar questions in a heated congressional hearing about child exploitation. In January 2024, Zuckerberg turned directly towards grieving parents on the Senate floor to apologise, promising to continue investments to protect children. Those families weren\u2019t convinced that Meta would make meaningful progress, and still aren\u2019t; they are hoping the courts can provide more relief. These trials could eventually result in large payouts from tech companies and changes in the way social media platforms are designed.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Meta urges Ireland to block planned EU law targeting addictive social media featuresOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHis apology \u2013 if you will call it that \u2013 was mostly empty,\u201d said John DeMay, who was present in the Senate hearing room in 2024. DeMay\u2019s son, Jordan, was 17 when he died by suicide in 2022, hours after being targeted in an online sextortion scam on Instagram. \u201cHe basically said they\u2019re doing everything they can to stop and prevent this stuff from happening and unfortunately that\u2019s just not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the two years since, DeMay has visited Capitol Hill frequently to advocate for online child safety \u2013 but has been frustrated by the lack of progress. DeMay\u2019s lawsuit is one of the many cases that will be considered as part of a judicial council co-ordination proceeding. He has more faith in the courts than Congress, and has previously attended hearings in the current trial, although he was following Wednesday\u2019s proceedings from his home in Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful that this case prevails but if it doesn\u2019t, we still won because we showed the world \u2013 with on the record evidence \u2013 that they\u2019re doing one thing and saying another,\u201d DeMay said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0European Commission seeks to force TikTok to end \u2018infinite scrolling\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Meta is also involved in separate litigation in New Mexico, where prosecutors accuse the company of violating the state\u2019s consumer protection laws; Meta failed to disclose what it knew about how its social media platforms could harm children, they say. Meta has denied those claims.<\/p>\n

Instagram has, in recent years, added some safety features aimed at its young users. But a 2025 review of these tools by Fairplay \u2013 a non-profit which advocates for reducing the influence of big tech on children \u2013 found \u201cthat less than one in five are fully functional and two-thirds (64 per cent) are either substantially ineffective or no longer exist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some former Meta employees have said that the company has been dismissive of warnings around child safety. Kelly Stonelake left Meta on medical leave, in February 2023, after she faced harassment and retaliation for raising such concerns, she says. Stonelake sued Meta last year over the issue, and also alleged a toxic pattern of silencing women.<\/p>\n

She alleges Meta was collecting data on kids without parental consent and exposing them to other adults and \u201can environment that we knew was riddled with harassment and bullying\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has testified at a landmark trial of social media companies on Wednesday. Plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,823,61,542,60,2597,1226,90,4621],"class_list":["post-305658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-facebook","tag-ie","tag-instagram","tag-ireland","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-meta","tag-us","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}