Young woman says she was on social media ‘all day long’ as a child in landmark addiction trial

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A young woman who is battling against social media giants took the stand Thursday to testify about her experience using the platforms as she was growing up, saying she was on social media “all day long” as a child.

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.

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.

KGM, or Kaley, as her lawyers have called her during the trial, started using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at age 9.

A turbulent home life

Kaley took the stand wearing a pink floral dress and a beige cardigan and said she was “very nervous” after her attorney, Mark Lanier, asked how she was doing Thursday morning.

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’s consistent efforts to make her childhood special.

Still, Kaley’s relationship with her mother was challenging at times. Kaley said most of their arguments were over the use of her phone.

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.

When asked about claims that her mother had hit her, abused her and neglected her, Kaley said “she wasn’t perfect, but she was trying her best,” and clarified that she doesn’t think she would label her mother’s past actions as abuse or neglect today. Kaley, who works as a personal shopper at Walmart, still lives with her mother in the home she grew up in.

Notifications gave her a ‘rush’

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 “buy” likes through a platform where she could like other people’s photos and get a slew of likes in return. “It made me look popular,” she said.

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 “rush,” she said. She would receive them throughout the day and would go to the bathroom during school to check them — something she still does.

Kaley said while she uses YouTube less often now, she believes she was previously addicted to it. “Anytime I tried to set limits for myself, it wouldn’t work and I just couldn’t get off,” she said.

Filters on Instagram, specifically those that could change a person’s cosmetic appearance, have also loomed large in the case and were also a constant fixture of Kaley’s use. Lanier and his colleagues unfurled a nearly 35-foot-long canvas banner with photos Kaley has posted on Instagram. She said “almost all” of the photos had a filter on them.

The jury was also shown Instagram posts and YouTube videos Kaley posted as a child and young teen. One video that tapped into the popular trend at the time, sharing a nighttime routine, showed a young Kaley scrolling on her phone, showering and taking off makeup and then returning to her phone to go on Instagram. Another video showed her saying she was “crying tears of joy” after surpassing 100 YouTube subscribers — but then she quickly turned to her looks, apologizing for her “ugly appearance.”

“I look so fat in this shirt,” the young Kaley says in the video.

Meta has argued that Kaley faced significant challenges before she ever used social media. The company’s lawyer, Paul Schmidt, said earlier this month that the core question in the case is whether the platforms were a substantial factor in Kayley’s mental health struggles. During opening arguments, he spent much of his time going through the plaintiff’s health records, emphasizing that she had experienced many difficult circumstances in her childhood, including emotional abuse, body image issues and bullying.

Kaley said she did not experience the negative feelings associated with her body dysmorphia diagnosis before she began using social media and filters.

Kaley was asked about her peak Instagram usage, which exceeded 16 hours one day. “I just felt like I wanted to be on it all the time, and if I wasn’t on it, I felt like I was going to miss out on something,” she said.

When she tried to stop using the platforms, she said she was often unsuccessful.

“Every single day, I was on it all day long,” she said.

Therapist: Social media and sense of self ‘were closely related’

Victoria Burke, a former therapist Kaley worked with in 2019, testified on Wednesday, and Burke said her social media and her sense of self “were closely related,” adding that what was happening on the platforms could “make or break her mood.”

An attorney for Meta parsed through Burke’s notes from her sessions with Kaley extensively in a cross examination that lasted about three hours. He highlighted Kaley’s 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’t 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.

Burke’s treatment of Kaley lasted about six months and that period took place seven years ago.

Platforms dispute addiction claims

The case has been the subject of intense interest among both advocacy groups lobbying for enhanced child safety protections and the tech world alike, with high profile testimony from the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

During Zuckerberg’s testimony, when he was asked if people tend to use something more if it’s addictive, he said “I’m not sure what to say to that.”

“I don’t think that applies here,” he continued. He said he believes in the “basic assumption” that “if something is valuable, people will use it more because it’s useful to them.” Mosseri also said he didn’t believe people could become clinically addicted to social media platforms.

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.