Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly said during a landmark Los Angeles trial over youth social media addiction that the Facebook and Instagram operator does not allow children under 13 on its platforms. Zuckerberg maintained that lawyers were “mischaracterising” communications in multiple internal documents which suggested they were a key demographic. Mark Lanier, a lawyer for the woman suing Instagram and Google’s YouTube for harming her mental health when she was a child, pressed Zuckerberg over a statement to Congress in 2024 that users under 13 are not allowed on the platform. Zuckerberg also told the jury that he overruled concerns about teen wellbeing from 18 experts to lift a ban on Instagram beauty filters because he was concerned about “free expression.”
