{"id":619133,"date":"2026-02-27T04:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/619133\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T04:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:56:16","slug":"young-woman-testifies-against-social-media-giants-over-technology-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/619133\/","title":{"rendered":"Young woman testifies against social media giants over technology addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A young woman who is battling against social media giants<\/a> took the stand Thursday to testify about her experience using the platforms as she was growing up, saying she was on social media \u201call day long\u201d as a child.<\/p>\n

The now 20-year-old, who has been identified in court documents as KGM, says her early use of social media addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Meta and YouTube are the two remaining defendants in the case, which TikTok and Snap have settled.<\/a><\/p>\n

The case, along with two others, has been selected as a bellwether trial, meaning its outcome could impact how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies are likely to play out. <\/p>\n

KGM, or Kaley, as her lawyers have called her during the trial, started using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9. <\/p>\n

A turbulent home life <\/p>\n

Kaley took the stand wearing a pink floral dress and a beige cardigan and said she was \u201cvery nervous\u201d after her attorney, Mark Lanier, asked how she was doing Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Lanier displayed childhood photos of Kaley and her family and asked about positive memories from her upbringing in a quiet cul-de-sac in Chico, California. She spoke of themed birthday parties, trips to Six Flags and her mom\u2019s consistent efforts to make her childhood special.<\/p>\n

Still, Kaley\u2019s relationship with her mother was challenging at times. Kaley said most of their arguments were over the use of her phone.<\/p>\n

Both the defendants and the plaintiff have pointed to a turbulent home life for Kaley. Her attorneys say she was preyed upon as a vulnerable user, but attorneys representing Meta and Google-owned YouTube have argued Kaley turned to their platforms as a coping mechanism or a means of escaping her mental health struggles.<\/p>\n

When asked about claims that her mother had hit her, abused her and neglected her, Kaley said \u201cshe wasn\u2019t perfect, but she was trying her best,\u201d and clarified that she doesn\u2019t think she would label her mother\u2019s past actions as abuse or neglect today. <\/p>\n

But later Thursday, during her cross-examination, Kaley did agree that her mother was being physically and emotionally abusive during the time that she was self-harming around when she was in the 6th grade. <\/p>\n

Kaley, who works as a personal shopper at Walmart, lives with her mother in the home she grew up in.<\/p>\n

Notifications gave her a \u2018rush\u2019<\/p>\n

As a child, Kaley set up multiple accounts on both Instagram and YouTube so she could like and comment on her posts. She said she would also \u201cbuy\u201d likes through a platform where she could like other people\u2019s photos and get a slew of likes in return. \u201cIt made me look popular,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kaley was asked specifically about the features the plaintiffs argue are deliberately designed to be addictive, including notifications. Those notifications on both Instagram and YouTube gave her a \u201crush,\u201d she said. She would receive them throughout the day and would go to the bathroom during school to check them \u2014 something she still does.<\/p>\n

Kaley said while she uses YouTube less often now, she believes she was previously addicted to it. \u201cAnytime I tried to set limits for myself, it wouldn\u2019t work and I just couldn\u2019t get off,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Filters on Instagram, specifically those that could change a person\u2019s cosmetic appearance, have also loomed large in the case and were also a constant fixture of Kaley\u2019s use. Lanier and his colleagues unfurled a nearly 35-foot-long canvas banner with photos Kaley has posted on Instagram. She said \u201calmost all\u201d of the photos had a filter on them.<\/p>\n

The jury was also shown Instagram posts and YouTube videos Kaley posted as a child and young teen. One video showed her saying she was \u201ccrying tears of joy\u201d after surpassing 100 YouTube subscribers \u2014 but then she quickly turned to her looks, apologizing for her \u201cugly appearance.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI look so fat in this shirt,\u201d the young Kaley says in the video. <\/p>\n

Kaley said she did not experience the negative feelings associated with her body dysmorphia diagnosis before she began using social media and filters.<\/p>\n

Meta focuses on plaintiff\u2019s home life, contradicting statements<\/p>\n

Meta has argued that Kaley faced significant challenges before she ever used social media. The company\u2019s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, said earlier this month<\/a> that the core question in the case is whether the platforms were a substantial factor in Kayley\u2019s mental health struggles. <\/p>\n

Meta attorney Phyllis Jones took a polite, respectful tone in her cross-examination Thursday, acknowledging that it could be uncomfortable for her to speak about her private life in front of a room of strangers. Jones proceeded to zero in on Kaley\u2019s home life. <\/p>\n

Jones pulled up text exchanges and posts Kaley had made on Instagram about her mental health and her relationship with her mother and played videos Kaley took of her mother yelling at her.<\/p>\n

On nearly 20 occasions during the Meta cross-examination, Jones asked Kaley to look at the transcript from her 2025 deposition, which contradicted some of the responses she gave during her testimony. Many of those questions were about how a specific action by her family members or a specific experience impacted her mental health, with Kaley saying on Thursday they either didn\u2019t have an impact or didn\u2019t significantly contribute to anxiety and depression. Her deposition from about a year ago often said the opposite.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to answer the questions to the best of my ability, but I may have misspoke at times,\u201d Kaley said of her deposition.<\/p>\n

This time, Kaley did agree that her mother was being physically and emotionally abusive during the time that she was self-harming around when she was in the 6th grade. She testified earlier in the day that she doesn\u2019t think she would label her mother\u2019s past actions as abuse or neglect today.<\/p>\n

Jones confirmed with Kaley that she had never had a doctor or mental health care provider diagnose her with a social media addiction, nor had she been treated for an addiction to Instagram or told by a provider to limit her Instagram use. Kaley said she never raised concerns about overuse or addiction with providers because she said she felt they would tell to get off the platforms entirely, which she didn\u2019t want. <\/p>\n

Therapist: Social media and sense of self \u2018were closely related\u2019<\/p>\n

Victoria Burke, a former therapist Kaley worked with in 2019, testified on Wednesday, and Burke said her social media and her sense of self \u201cwere closely related,\u201d adding that what was happening on the platforms could \u201cmake or break her mood.\u201d <\/p>\n

An attorney for Meta parsed through Burke\u2019s notes from her sessions with Kaley extensively in a cross examination that lasted about three hours. He highlighted Kaley\u2019s negative experiences with in-person bullying, other school-based sources of stress and anxiety and issues with her family. Mentions of social media in the notes were mostly limited to Kaley saying she didn\u2019t feel she had a place at home, at school or among her peers, but did feel she had a place to be seen on social media. <\/p>\n

Burke\u2019s treatment of Kaley lasted about six months and that period took place seven years ago.<\/p>\n

The case is expected to continue for several weeks, and the outcome the jury reaches could shape the outcome of a slew of similar lawsuits against social media companies. Meta is also facing a separate trial in New Mexico<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A young woman who is battling against social media giants took the stand Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":619134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[37694,7060,64,276,6017,57,59,12588,258305,517,265106,265107,345,158,8007,61,67,132,68,265108,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-619133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-addiction-and-treatment","9":"tag-alphabet","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-depression","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-inc","15":"tag-juries","16":"tag-mark-lanier","17":"tag-mental-health","18":"tag-paul-schmidt","19":"tag-phyllis-jones","20":"tag-social-media","21":"tag-technology","22":"tag-trials","23":"tag-u-s-news","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-victoria-burke","28":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116140820878510080","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}