Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, is having its feet put to the proverbial fire. Fresh off a court loss in New Mexico, the social media company has plunged into a larger, more bellwether lawsuit from four states: California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Colorado.

The trial began yesterday, with California focusing on leaked Meta internal communications that stated, “The Young Ones are the Best Ones” — meaning young users are easier to manipulate and keep addicted.

Twenty-nine states united in a single suit against Meta back in 2023. These four states are the first to go to trial, with the other 25 states to litigate later. The coalition is bipartisan and united in its ire against Meta and the great harms its products have wrought on young people.

The attorneys general of the four plaintiff states have proclaimed that they are suing the company for harvesting data, contributing to the youth mental health crisis, and marketing its products to children (all while knowing how addictive and harmful those products are to them).

The states are demanding $1.4 trillion in damages, along with changes to how Facebook and Instagram operate. Some of those changes include tightening age restrictions, not allowing push notifications during school hours, and more. This astronomical amount of money is almost as much as the company is worth ($1.5 trillion).

Cornell law professor James Grimmelmann weighed in on this bandied-about monetary penalty, saying, “It’s not plausible in the sense that Meta doesn’t have that much money and could not get it. An award that large would put Meta into bankruptcy, wipe out its owners, and effectively result in the states owning Meta.”

This is an interesting point. Moreover, as The Wall Street Journal editorial board observes, “The legal attacks on Meta merely let politicians pretend to protect children while the trial lawyers reap giant paydays. Talk about exploiting children for political profit.”

It is perfectly obvious that some state AGs are not going after Meta for the children’s sake. They want their piece of the pie. California, in particular, has a strong motive to eat its own (with Meta being a California-based company). The state is riddled with fraud, and its legislature’s policies are driving many people out.

California AG Rob Bonta claims, “Meta designed a dangerous product for young users, knew it to be dangerous, and then lied to children, families, and the community about how dangerous it was. We are ready to hold Meta accountable for its role in fueling the mental health crisis of American children and look forward to trial.”

As the Journal’s editors astutely add, “The AGs are trying to punish Meta for failing to take actions that Congress and even their own states can’t agree on.” While these AGs cry that Meta has violated federal law, they are also smacking Meta for failing to implement protections that are still being fought over in Congress. Should children have access to social media at all? Australia has said no and implemented a ban. The U.S. is still deciding.

A Meta spokesperson shrewdly said, “The AGs offer no proof anyone in their states was misled, claim benign features like having an additional Instagram account somehow harmed their residents, and attempt to penalize Meta for industry-wide challenges like age verification.”

We know there has been a horrible increase in the childhood mental health crisis. Giving a child access to social media is likely to increase their exposure to extremely harmful things. For young girls, beauty influencers who are likely hiding filters give them unrealistic standards of beauty, leading to disorders like bulimia and anorexia. For young boys, Instagram is a cornucopia of soft porn. Both girls and boys are served up videos about witchcraft, transgenderism, self-harm, and more — and even with Teen Accounts ostensibly protecting them from predators, exposure to inappropriate videos is not necessarily eliminated.

Meta receives 98% of its revenue from advertising, and advertisers themselves admit that manipulating children and teens is so much easier than manipulating adults. Meta is facilitating that access.

Will this trial from California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and Colorado be Meta’s big tobacco moment? Will it force change? The accusations from the AGs are not without merit — it would benefit everyone if current and future lawsuits bring about meaningful change in company practices. However, the first line of defense is parents. They need to be the ones policing their kids’ social media use.