Instagram tracked growing usage while targeting teens, lawyers argue

Instagram tracked the time users spent on its app, with company executives flagging “milestones” that its app reached year after year. The app’s daily usage grew from 40 minutes per day in 2023 to 46 minutes per day in 2026, according to documentation revealed during Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony in a state court case proceeding taking place in Los Angeles County Superior Court this month. The focus on time-spent metrics is a key factor in the lawsuit, which is also Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s first-ever appearance before a jury. In the lawsuit “K.G.M. v. Platforms et al.,” now underway in L.A. County’s Superior Court, a jury will determine whether or not social media companies are liable for youth mental health issues caused by their platforms or their addictive designs. Snap and TikTok settled before the trial’s start, but Meta and YouTube declined. Executives from both companies will give testimony as part of the trial. The 19-year old plaintiff in the case, who goes by the initial K.G.M. or “Kaley,” says that using social media at a young age was harmful to her mental health, leading her to become addicted to the technology and develop depression, including thoughts of suicide. Meta disputes that its app is responsible for Kaley’s troubles. “The question for the jury in Los Angeles is whether Instagram was a substantial factor in the plaintiff’s mental health struggles. The evidence will show she faced many significant, difficult challenges well before she ever used social media,” said Meta spokesperson Stephanie Otway in an emailed statement about the case. Lawyers for the plaintiffs are hoping to prove that Meta set goals internally to increase the time users spent on Instagram, despite knowing there were minors on the platform. In Zuckerberg’s testimony this month, he was pressed on why he told Congress in 2024 that children under 13 were not allowed on Instagram, when internal documents showed that the company knew of some 4 million children under 13 on the app...