On Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified for the first time in a landmark trial about child safety and social media. The case is the first in a series of lawsuits filed by minors, school districts, and state attorneys general accusing social media platforms of being addictive and harmful to children.
During testimony, a lawyer presented a simple drawing of a frowning stick figure to represent a vulnerable child and asked Zuckerberg whether a responsible company should help, ignore, or prey on a child. “I think a reasonable company should try to help a person that uses its services,” Zuckerberg replied, according to NYT.
The tech mogul firmly pushed back while being questioned by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Mark Lanier, who represents the 20-year-old woman identified in court papers only as “KGM.”
Zuckerberg faces jury in landmark social media trial: Age limits and under-13 users
Zuckerberg is being questioned along with other tech companies, including YouTube, TikTok, and Snap. Plaintiffs say these platforms are addictive, comparing them to cigarettes or slot machines, and argue they can cause anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and self-harm in young users.
Meta denied the claims. Parents and child safety groups have accused the company of hooking teenagers on its apps and worsening mental health problems. Documents shown in court revealed that Meta had considered building a separate platform for children under 13, sometimes referred to as “FB1.” Zuckerberg said he did not recall the exact name, but explained that the idea was to create a service where parents could control accounts so kids could join legally.
“In practice, it proved very complicated to build something like this,” he said according to NYT. “We never really got around to finding a way to do it that was productive.” He noted, however, that there was a version of Messenger for kids, which may have been related to the FB1 plan.
This is not the first time, the tech boss is being grilled about underage users and social media addiction. Zuckerberg has faced repeated questioning in Congress over child safety. In one 2024 hearing, he apologised to parents whose children had died, saying, “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through.”
Zuckerberg also denied that Instagram specifically targets teenagers. He told the jury that less than 1% of Instagram’s revenue comes from teens. “Attracting teenagers specifically wasn’t meaningful in the short term,” he said, adding that the company’s goal has always been to make sure users have a positive experience.
Zuckerberg said that even though Meta has a policy against under-13 users, some children lie about their age to join. He explained that Meta has developed tools to detect underage users, but these features weren’t available when many kids first joined Instagram at age 9.
“I always wish we could have gotten there sooner,” Zuckerberg said about the safety tools, NYT reported. “I don’t think we identified every single person who tried to get around restrictions, but you’re implying we weren’t trying to work on it and that’s not true
Zuckerberg grilled on safety and image
Documents revealed in the trial show that Zuckerberg and other Meta leaders repeatedly minimised the risks of their platforms to young people while rejecting employee requests to boost safety measures. On Wednesday, a lawyer questioned Zuckerberg about child safety and his past appearances in Congress. Internal documents showed that Meta’s communications team tried to make Zuckerberg’s public image more “human” and less “robotic.”
“I’m actually well known to be sort of bad at this,” Zuckerberg said about past media appearances.
Another document revealed that in 2015, about four million American children aged 10 to 12 were using Instagram, despite rules forbidding under-13 accounts. Zuckerberg said Instagram is a valuable service and that if people find it useful, “people will want to use it more.”
Zuckerberg often gave short answers and occasionally challenged lawyer, saying that some past statements were taken out of context or that decade-old documents were not relevant.
Zuckerberg explained that people spend time on social media because they find it valuable, not because the platform is deliberately addictive. He compared it to television, saying:
“People shift their time naturally to what they’re finding valuable… TV hasn’t got better over time, but social media has quite a bit.” He added, “I built this in order to have a positive impact in people’s lives… it’s very important to me that what we do is a positive force in their lives.”
Lanier also asked Zuckerberg about his wealth. The Meta CEO said he has pledged to give “almost all” of his money to charity, mainly for scientific research. Lanier then asked how much money he had pledged to victims affected by social media.“I disagree with the characterisation of your question,” Zuckerberg replied.