Meta goes on trial today as 29 states, including South Dakota, seek $1.4 trillion in damages for all the harm Facebook and its other intentionally addictive social media products have done to children:
…One of the suit’s central arguments is that Meta designed and deployed features to capture young users’ attention and prolong their time on social media, including the “like” button, the infinite-scroll function and recommendation algorithms that “encourage compulsive use.” The company financially benefited from this, the suit claims, because Meta makes money from advertising. The longer kids stay on Meta’s sites — and the more effectively that advertising can be targeted to them — the more money Meta stands to make.
The lawsuit alleges that Meta prioritized engagement over young users’ safety, creating products that disrupted their education and sleep and, in the case of visual filters, were known to promote eating disorders and body dysmorphia. This happened, the states argue, despite public statements by Meta that its platforms were designed to support the well-being of young users [John Ruwitch, “Meta Heads to Court in a Landmark Trial About Kids and Social Media Addiction,” NPR: Morning Edition, 2026.08.17].
Leading the lawsuit are the Democratic Attorneys General of California, Colorado, and New Jersey and the Republican A.G. of Kentucky. Attorney General Marty Jackley has had the good sense to sign South Dakota up for this fight against Facebook and surveillance capitalism’s ruthless snaring and consumption of children’s souls for profit:
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said a bipartisan coalition of Attorneys General will begin presenting its case Tuesday in its federal lawsuit against Meta. The coalition alleges the social media giant knowingly designed and deployed harmful features on Facebook and Instagram that drive compulsive use of the platforms by children and teens, while falsely assuring parents and the public that its platforms were safe for young users.
“We have waited three years for this case to go to trial, and the state coalition is ready to present its case,” said Attorney General Jackley. “It is time to hold Meta accountable for designing a dangerous product that targeted children and then lying about it to parents, children, and officials.”
…Opening statements begin Tuesday before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and is expected to last six to eight weeks [Office of the Attorney General, press release, 2026.08.17].
Kentucky AG Russell Coleman likens the battle against Meta’s crimes against humanity to the successful prosecutions of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma:
This week, we’re in court with the largest consumer protection lawsuit in American history. We’ll show a jury that Meta concealed what it knew about the harm its products cause young people because looking away was more profitable…. AGs are in the perfect position to get this done. We did it with the Tobacco Settlement in the 1990s. We did it with the companies behind the opioid crisis. We’ll do it again with Meta [Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, quoted in California Attorney General’s Office, press release, 2026.08.17].
Tobacco, opioids, Facebook—yup, that analogy works.
The lead AGs likely have all the arguments well in hand, and Marty’s going to be too busy campaigning for Congress to fly down to Oakland to address the court in person, but let’s hope we hear Marty say more on the campaign trail about his commitment to fighting Facebook’s destructive commodification of children not only with lawsuits but with toothy federal regulation of social media.
I was captured by Captain Eleven at a very young age. Never grew out of it.
Kids? How about adults…
Mark Anderson has a point. The addictive media of my childhood was the boob tube, described by Newton Minnow as a “vast wasteland.” Captain 11 had spinning vortices, a time converter and Quick Draw McGraw and other cartoons to watch after school. If that didn’t rot our minds, on Saturday mornings we had hours more, as well as cowboy shows and Sky King, my favorite.
My mom had stuff on radio to rot her mind. I guess before that kids had to settle for the rotten stuff they could read in the Bible.
There’s always something out there that will rot kids mind or turn it into mush.
When our daughter was born we sold our TV and didn’t have one in our house for 10 years. Of course she watched TV at other kids’ houses, but her early double digit mind warping began with some TV show for tweens that I can’t remember, except for the characters named Topanga and Cody. Then she graduated to the X Files before she got a computer and addicted herself ( and me) with the Beavis and Butthead Loogie Game. We had fun playing that game together. Facebook got big when she was in college, but back then it was mainly used to keep in touch with college friends because you needed an .edu address to participate.
I think the real problem is people, kids included, seem to need a little bit of escape time, but in moderation. And using algorithms to make something addictive seems devious to me, but then why is South Dakota supporting video lottery?
Tobacco, opioids, Facebook, AND COMICS.
In the 1940’s concerns grew that comics were corrupting children and contributing to juvenile delinquency.
Church groups, parent organizations, and school leaders began denouncing them. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, community “comic book burnings” became a visible protest, with students and Scout leaders collecting and destroying copies firstamendment.mtsu.edu.
Psychological and media influence
Psychiatrist Frederic Wertham’s 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent claimed comic books were a major cause of juvenile crime, a view widely publicized at the time historyfacts.com. His claims, though later found to be flawed, fueled Senate hearings and public outrage.
Regulatory response
The fear led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA) in 1954, a self‑governed censorship body that required publishers to edit out violent, horror, and morally questionable content historyfacts.com. This self‑censorship reshaped the industry, making superheroes like Batman more wholesome and pushing out many publishers.
Impact
The “comic book panic” of the 1950s reflected a broader moral panic in post‑war America, where new media were seen as potential threats to social order. While the fear was not universal, it was enough to drive widespread censorship, public protests, and lasting changes in how comics were produced and marketed.
In short, comic books did raise fear among Americans — especially in the 1950s — because they were seen as a dangerous influence on youth, and that fear led to one of the most notable censorship campaigns in U.S. popular culture history firstamendment.mtsu.edu+2. – GOOGLE