Judge lets 29 states take Meta to trial over child addiction claims
A federal judge in Oakland just told Meta that whether Instagram is engineered to addict children is a question for a jury, not a motion to dismiss. Trial is set for August 18.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers refused to throw out 29 states' claims that Meta engineered Facebook and Instagram to hook kids, and she granted the states summary judgment on Meta's failure to obtain parental consent under COPPA.
A 38-page ruling sends the addiction question to a jury, with trial on August 18. On HN the reaction runs from calls for case law to a skeptic who reads it as the government seeing dollar signs and blaming Meta for users' own choices.
A judge sends Meta's child-addiction case to a jury
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, in Oakland, denied Meta's motion to dismiss claims by 29 state attorneys general that Facebook and Instagram were built to addict children and that Meta hid the harm. In a 38-page ruling she found genuine factual disputes over whether the platforms are addictive and whether Meta "partially" aimed them at kids.
She went further on one count. Gonzalez Rogers granted the states summary judgment that Meta failed the notice and parental-consent requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. A trial for California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey is set for August 18.
The thread split on whether this is justice or a shakedown
The dissent was blunt:
"So frankly rulings like this just seem like the government seeing dollar signs and asking for hand outs. And all because people apparently can't accept any personal responsibility." — a commenter who notes he has no Facebook account
Others doubted the case will touch the product at all:
"Get used to reading books and going on walks. The internet is almost dead." — a commenter who expects only age or identity verification to result
And one reader did the sourcing the article skipped:
"Here is the order denying Meta's motion to dismiss" — a commenter who tracked down the court's order
The quiet part is the count Meta already lost. Not the emotive addiction claim now headed for a jury, but a flat finding that it broke a children's-privacy statute on the books since 1998.
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