Meta Was Built to Hook Children, 29 States Tell a Court

A trial that opened Aug. 18, 2026, in federal court in Oakland, California, pits 29 states against Meta, which they accuse of engineering Facebook and Instagram to hook children and hiding what it knew. An advisory jury has begun hearing a case the company warns could force sweeping changes to two of the world’s largest platforms.

Opening arguments began on Aug. 18, 2026, in a federal courtroom in Oakland, California, in a landmark case that accuses Meta of designing Facebook and Instagram to addict young users, concealing the resulting harm and unlawfully collecting children’s data. A coalition of 29 states, led by California, is pressing the claims before an advisory jury, with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers set to decide the company’s liability, Al Jazeera and CNN reported.

‘Hook,’ then ‘hide’

Lawyers for the states told the eight-member advisory jury that Meta set out to hook young users, hold their attention for as long as possible, harvest their personal data and then hide the truth from the public, according to opening statements reported by NPR. The states argue the company deployed features engineered to capture attention and prolong use — among them the “like” button, infinite scroll and recommendation algorithms said to encourage compulsive use — and profited from the time young people spent on its apps, NBC News reported.

Data on children under 13

The states also accuse Meta of violating the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by gathering personal information about users under 13 without parental consent, NPR reported. The case, brought in 2023 and argued by lawyers for California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky on behalf of the wider group, is a bellwether in a sprawling body of litigation that consolidates thousands of similar suits, according to CNN.

What is at stake

Meta has told the court the states are seeking penalties as high as $1.4 trillion, a figure the company has dismissed as unreasonable, and it says the case could force fundamental changes to Facebook and Instagram, Al Jazeera reported. The advisory jury’s findings will not be binding; Judge Gonzalez Rogers will make the final determination, and the trial is expected to run four to six weeks, with Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg among the witnesses expected to testify, Al Jazeera reported.

A year of adverse findings

The trial is the latest in a series of setbacks for Meta over child safety in 2026. In March, a Los Angeles jury found that Meta and Google bore responsibility for the depression and anxiety of a young woman who had compulsively used social media as a child, awarding her $6 million, NPR reported. On Aug. 6, a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay into a $567 million fund to remediate harms to children and branded Facebook and Instagram a public nuisance in the state, CBS News reported. The Oakland case turns on the same machinery at issue in those disputes — the recommendation systems and endless feeds that rank content to keep users scrolling, which the states argue Meta tuned for engagement at the expense of the children using its apps, CNN reported.