Lawyers say Meta covered up research on teen addiction; influencer outreach to promote teen accounts in focus

Meta is under scrutiny over its alleged cover-up of internal research, showing teenagers are getting addicted to its platforms, as a lawsuit filed by 29 US states went to trial on Tuesday.

Lawyers representing the attorneys general argued that while safeguarding children's health and well-being is a shared responsibility, “Meta didn’t do its share.”

Megan O’Neill, California's deputy attorney general, told jurors they would see internal documents and hear witnesses' testimonies regarding how Meta allegedly tried to cover up research into social media addiction.

One document said, “the young ones are the best ones”, while another said, “Teens are hooked despite how it makes them feel. Instagram is addictive,” a report in The Guardian revealed.

O'Neill said the company knew about this addiction problem, but “time and again, profits won.”

The trial, expected to last six to eight weeks, is being held in federal court in California's Oakland.

Lawyers claim Meta “refuses to abandon its use of known harmful features” and that its intentions are directed to “maximize its financial gains”.

A lawyer for the company countered that these documents were cherry-picked and presented out of context, adding that Meta is “acting in a meaningful way to remove” younger users from its platforms.

Meta's influencers push back

Five months before Australia banned teenagers from social media, Meta invited parental influencers to a retreat-like programme called the ‘Instagram Safety Camp.' According to the digital advocacy group Tech Transparency Project, attendees were given personalized scout badges and food, while being told how effective Instagram's parental supervision tools were.

“What we worry about is pushing teens into places that are less safe,” Meta’s head of child safety, Ravi Sinha, told these influencers, adding, “We think our approach strikes the right balance.”

Following this interaction, these parent influencers went out to share these talking points with their millions of followers.

Meta has been following this playbook across the world, where it has faced scrutiny, according to a review by the Tech Transparency Project.

The company has admitted that it has held more than 40 events across the globe since 2024 to promote its teen safety tools, and that it has engaged with social media influencers to do so because "they are local voices trusted by parents in their communities."

"Their platform helps us reach families at scale in locations where we can't attend every school event or parent meetup," Meta said. "All paid partnerships are clearly disclosed and comply with relevant advertising standards in each market."