Can the courts prove Meta got kids addicted to social media?

0:00It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, meta, social media, and young people. I just didn't fit into what Instagram standards were at that point. And so that caused a lot of uneasiness. That's Destiny Adams talking to Lulu Garcia Navarro on Weekend Edition Sunday back in 2023 when Adams was a college senior. So I would post a picture and I would gain likes. If I get this amount of likes, then I'm worthy. And if you don't get the certain amount of likes that you think that you're going to get, it makes you feel a little rejected. And it's kind of overwhelming.

0:39The same year Adams spoke to Garcia Navarro, she was diagnosed with anxiety. My doctor said that the pressure I feel to present myself as something other than my authentic self in that moment was a key factor to my diagnosis. Adams wasn't and isn't alone. Concern about social media in general and these products specifically has been mounting for years. Now four state attorneys general are taking on the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, Meta. They're arguing the tech giant's products are designed to hook young people and have fostered addictive behavior in teens. Mitch Prenstein is at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and he researches technology and brain development.

1:21These are young folks who have a hypersensitive social brain and a very weak prefrontal cortex, or their breaks are very weak. Consider this. Concerns about social media have prompted a group of attorneys general to sue Mehta. Could their case change the way social media is used? We hear what happened on the first day of court.

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2:59It's Consider This from NPR. Meta's lawyers are in federal court to defend against accusations from four state attorneys general that the company's social media platforms are designed to hook children. Meta denies those allegations. KQED's Rachel Miro followed the first day, and she spoke to my co-host Mary Louise Kelly. Okay, so set us up with the specifics. What was the argument from the lawyer for the states? Megan O 'Neill, deputy AG for California, which is suing along with Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey, said, quote, this case is about whether Meta misled the public about risks on its platforms.

3:39Risks, she argued, that Meta designed Facebook and Instagram intentionally to addict children, even though the company knew it was exposing them to substantial risk of psychologically damaging experiences. All this while executives testified publicly and company PR communicated repeatedly that Meta was doing none of this. She also promised the jury that most of the state's case will be built on internal private documents for Meta as well as Meta employees. The headliner is most definitely going to be CEO Mark Zuckerberg. There are also expert witnesses, including whistleblowers, at least one of whom has testified before Congress.

4:19And then how about the other side? What was the counterargument from Metter's lawyer? Metter attorney Paul Schmidt argued the states found extreme cases, proverbial needles in the haystack of billions of user experiences across the globe and over the years. He acknowledged there's no dispute that some teens struggle to manage their time on social media and no dispute that kids can lie about their ages to get around Meta's 13 and over age policy and no dispute that some people post negative things. But that's something Meta takes seriously and tries to act on, he said. In recent years, the platforms have rolled out things like parental controls and Instagram teen accounts to respond to public concerns.

5:02In this case, Rachel, is one of many, many, many cases pending against MEDA. Just give us the broader context here. Well, Mary Louise, there are thousands of personal injury and consumer protection lawsuits against social media companies filed by states, school districts, individuals. All these cases claim in some form that the platforms are addictive to children and designed to be that way. If this sounds like the legal playbook used against big tobacco in the 1990s, you are hearing right. Now, social media platforms developers have long argued successfully that federal law protects them from claims made on free speech grounds.

5:43But plaintiffs are drawing blood at the state level with the new consumer product cases like those brought against tobacco companies. Judges in both New Mexico and Los Angeles have already ordered big damages. Appeals are pending. Okay, so back to the case that kicked off today in court. Pointer or two for what we should watch for next. This case is going to be another barn burner of a tech trial in front of the same judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, who oversaw Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI earlier this year. She clearly has an appetite for complex Silicon Valley disputes. Hard to say this early in the case what kind of financial damages Meta is looking at, but it could be in the billions or even more.

6:28Regardless, the states are also asking that Meta be ordered to change up how it designs its products so that they're less addictive. Thank you, Rachel. Thank you. That was KQED's Rachel Miro speaking to my co-host Mary Louise Kelly. As we mentioned earlier, the big question at the heart of the Meta lawsuit is whether the company designed its platforms in a way that risks addiction by young users. And there is some debate about social media addiction. So we asked health correspondent Ritu Shatterjee to explain it to us. Hey there. Hey, Juana. So, Ritu, what's the answer? Can you be addicted to social media?

7:04Well, I put that question to Dr. Petros Levounis. He's the head of psychiatry at Rutgers Medical School, and here's what he said. There is a group of people, a small group of people, who already exhibit symptoms of addiction, constantly thinking about social media, spending tremendous amounts of time engaging with social media. And other symptoms can include, you know, knowing that too much time on social media isn't healthy for you, but not being able to cut back. Or you cut back, but have withdrawal symptoms. However, I should add that social media addiction is not an official diagnosis as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.

7:46At least not yet. But pediatricians and child and adolescent specialists I've spoken with say they are seeing more and more young people with symptoms of social media addiction. Rachel, do we have a sense of what percentage of young people are affected? So researchers are starting to get a better handle on this for youth in recent years from some large-scale studies. I've interviewed several researchers who study social media use among young people, and one of them is pediatrician Dr. Jason Nagata. He's at the University of San Francisco. Among even 11 to 12-year-olds, so these are pre-teenagers, A quarter say that they spend a lot of time thinking about their social media apps or planning use of social media apps.

8:27One in five say that they're using social media apps to forget about their problems. And one in six say that they try to use social media apps less, but they're not able to. And, you know, Nagata and his colleagues have also documented some of the risks of addictive social media use in young people. Young people with addictive social media use had greater depressive and attention problems, suicide behaviors, sleep disturbance, and substance initiation one year later. And Nagata also says that he and his colleagues have found links with poor cognition and memory down the line. I mean, me too. I'm just thinking about this from the perspective of parents and people who care for kids.

9:06How can they help kids become less hooked on social media and all those other screens? So firstly, experts like Nagata say we need to have laws and regulations in place to prevent social media companies from having addictive features in their apps. But he says there are a couple other things parents can do that can make a big difference. As the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests, you know, have a family media plan, sit together with your kids and decide when and how much screen time everybody in the family will use and keep devices out of mealtimes and bedrooms and B, help kids replace that screen time with other fun in-person activities.

9:47And, you know, all of this has to be a collective, collaborative effort for families. That's NPR's Ritu Chatterjee. Thanks so much. My pleasure. And to note the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a charity founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, is a financial supporter of NPR. This episode was produced by Elena Burnett, Jeffrey Pierre, and Karen Zamora with audio engineering by Robert Rodriguez. Our director is Alejandra Marquez-Hance. Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning, who also edited this episode, along with Ravenna Koenig, Cara Platoni, Diane Weber, Jenea Williams, and Mallory Yu.

10:30It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. This week on Shortwave, you are what you eat may not be a phrase you associate with your mental health, but... One in three people have insulin resistance in our country. And if you have insulin resistance, you are double the likelihood of developing major depression. We explore the link between your body and your brain. Listen on Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. The midterms are coming. And if you think the news cycle feels intense now, just wait until the fall. That's why summer is a perfect time to make sure your news diet is calibrated.

11:09I'm Ian Martinez. On Up First, we unpack the three biggest stories every morning so you can stay informed and get on with your day in fewer than 15 minutes. Follow or subscribe to Up First today wherever you get podcasts.