Mother and father Hope ‘Tide Will Flip’ As Zuckerberg Takes the Stand

Lori Schott, a mom from rural Colorado, mentioned she stared down Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he walked into court docket in Los Angeles on Wednesday to testify in a landmark trial relating to social media habit.

Schott misplaced her 18-year-old daughter, Annalee, to suicide in 2020. She believes the content material Annalee noticed on social media platforms “destroyed” her psychological well being.

“I made eye contact with him for fairly a very long time,” Schott mentioned of Zuckerberg. “I used to be not backing down.”

Schott isn’t a plaintiff within the case the place Zuckerberg testified on Wednesday, however is amongst greater than 2,000 people who’ve comparable private damage lawsuits pending relating to social media habit and hurt.

The case underway in Los Angeles facilities on a 20-year-old girl, recognized by the initials KGM, who says her use of social media all through her childhood negatively affected her psychological well being, contributing to despair and suicidal ideas. It’s thought-about a bellwether trial that would point out how different comparable lawsuits associated to social media hurt, like Schott’s, might play out.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Fb, was named as a defendant alongside Google-owned YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat. TikTok and Snapchat each settled the lawsuit out of court docket.

Final month, Meta warned buyers that its mounting authorized battles over youth security might “considerably impression” its 2026 monetary outcomes. Attorneys for greater than 100,000 particular person arbitration claimants have “despatched mass arbitration calls for referring to ‘social media habit'” since late 2024, the corporate mentioned in a 2026 10-Okay, which warned that potential damages in sure instances might attain into the “excessive tens of billions of {dollars}.”

In an announcement, Stephanie Otway, a Meta spokesperson, mentioned: “We strongly disagree with these allegations and are assured the proof will present our longstanding dedication to supporting younger folks.” Otway highlighted modifications the corporate has remodeled the previous decade, together with Teen Accounts, which give dad and mom instruments to handle their teenagers’ accounts.

Google declined to remark. TikTok didn’t reply to a request for remark. A Snapchat spokesperson mentioned in an announcement: “The Events are happy to have been capable of resolve this matter in an amicable method.”

On Wednesday, dad and mom confirmed up hours earlier than the courthouse opened in hopes of getting a seat inside. Lots of them had private tales about how they believed social media use harmed their kids.

“We face plenty of stigma from folks telling us we’re dangerous dad and mom,” mentioned Amy Neville, one other guardian who attended to indicate her assist. She mentioned that after the proof comes out within the trial, she believes “the tide will flip, and most people will likely be on board with us.”

“It’s by design that social media is tearing their household aside,” Neville mentioned.

On the stand, Zuckerberg mentioned that teenagers signify lower than 1% of Meta’s advert income and that the majority teenagers do not have disposable earnings, so it is not particularly helpful to advertisers to achieve them.

Zuckerberg mentioned it is in Meta’s finest curiosity to create a platform that conjures up folks and makes them wish to stick round for the long run.

“If folks aren’t proud of a service, ultimately over time they’re going to cease utilizing it and use one thing higher,” he mentioned.

Sarah Gardner mentioned that whatever the final result of the trial, she hopes it raises consciousness about how the social media corporations, and particularly Zuckerberg, have been working. Gardner is the CEO of the Warmth Initiative, an advocacy group that pressures Huge Tech corporations to make their platforms safer for youths. She was on the courthouse with the dad and mom who imagine they’ve been affected.

Gardner mentioned she’s hopeful the trial will empower extra folks to say, “I do not wish to be on Instagram anymore.”