Meta denies trying to hook children to Facebook and Instagram at the start of the federal trial

Meta is back in court, as the tech giant faces charges from this Tuesday of a coalition of 29 states in the U.S. that deliberately sought to create child and adolescent addiction on Facebook and Instagram . 

It is not the first judicial battle facing Mark Zuckerberg's company, one of the largest ports, which is estimated to pay him $1.4 billion in financial compensation.

At the recent trial in Oakland, Northern California, Federal Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogershas already begun to hear arguments from prosecution prosecutors that the Met violated the Internet Child Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by illegally collecting information from children under the age of 13.

In the process, which will last between four and six weeks, Mark Zuckerberg , CEO of Meta, and Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, is expected to be called to testify.

The trial began on Tuesday with a lawsuitfiled by California Deputy Attorney General Megan O'Neill, who claimed that the technology created by Mark Zuckerberg "hid the truth . "When the time came to make a decision -- choose the one that's safe for children or choose the one that's safe for their profits -- profitswere repeatedly imposed, O'Neill said.

Former Meta employee Arturo Bejar, who also testified in the first session, explained that he warned senior company officials of the damage that users suffered as a result of the design on Instagram, and that it was possible to avoid such damage.

Whistleblowers seek to "change" business practices for the future, including "stop lying and deceiving the public," as well as change the functions of platforms that cause obsessive, exaggerated, and compulsive "conscious" meta behavior.

A group of parents of damaged children and young people concentrated outside the court on the first day.

The Met denies the accusations

At the first session of thetrial, Meta's lawyer, Paul Schmidt, has stated that he "totally disagrees" with the charges and has ensured that the company is working to help improve the well-being of teenagers after a survey of the technology itself showed that 20% of users feel worse when they use Instagram.

Counsel has also highlighted the company's efforts to block users under the age of 13, explaining that in the last three months, the company has eliminated 600,000 accounts created linked to unauthorized users.

Part of a broader process

The trial is part of a broader case involving more than 3,000 plaintiffs , against the Met and other tech giants like Google, TikTok and Snap.

According to the plaintiffs, these platforms were designed to maximize the time users spend in front of screens, which could encourage addictive behaviour among children and adolescents and cause emotional and physical damage, including death in the most serious cases.

This trial COPPA is the first trial a jury can evaluate for breach of law. 

Previous court defeats

After several court defeats , the tech giant has reached the federal court trial in Northern California.  

In fact, a Santa Fe District Court in New Mexico sentencedMetaearlier this month to pay $567 million to a juvenile mental health recovery fund, finding that the way to act  harms the health and safety of teenagers.

In March 2026, a court in Los Angeles ordered a 20-year-old girl to pay $6 million to Met and Google for negligence and social media addiction when she was a teenager, 70% of which will have to be paid by the Met and the remaining 30% by Google.