Editor's Note: This story contains mention of self-harm and suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide or other acts of self-harm, please visit 988Colorado.com, or call or text 988 from your cell phone for free, confidential, and immediate support.
Social media companies are on trial in a landmark case that could have far-reaching implications.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified Wednesday before a California jury in the case that accuses social media companies of deliberately designing platforms to addict children.
A Colorado woman, who said her daughter developed a social media addiction that led to her death by suicide, was there at the courthouse in Los Angeles.
Lori Schott from Merino, in northeast Colorado, joined what she calls a group of “survivor parents” to be there when Zuckerberg walked in to take the stand.
“We know that they have designed these products to addict kids. We know that it's harmed children,” said Schott, one of many parents who say they are looking for justice after their kids got hooked on social media.
Schott said her daughter Annalee was “a beautiful little girl” who loved life and her animals on the farm where they grow alfalfa. She said the girl was kind beyond words.
Annalee, who attended Merino High School, died in 2020, after struggling with social-media-fueled self-doubt, anxiety and depression, something her parents truly understood after gaining access to her phone. “When the algorithm took hold, it just took hold and beat her down until really, it just pushed her over the edge that she basically said, ‘I have no future. You know, this will stop the pain.’”
The social media apps Annalee most frequently visited were Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Schott said eventually it led her to watching videos that glorified self-harm, the content in her feed “basically saying ‘There's one way to take away the pain and here's a gun and bullets and you're never going to fit in.’”
Schott is one of many parents who have sued, alleging social media companies created faulty, unsafe products, designed like cigarettes or slot machines — to addict.
Tech companies, like Meta, which owns Instagram and Google, which owns YouTube, deny that. They maintain that a child's mental health struggles can stem from many causes, that social media is being unfairly blamed. They say they should not be held legally liable for the mental health problems of a user.
‘Comparing myself to them was definitely a mistake, but I couldn't help it.’
Abby Jones, then a middle schooler from Denver, talked in 2019 to CPR, as part of a series called Teens Under Stress. She described loving to listen to music on her smartphone but also getting “really depressed. ‘Cause I was like, ‘oh, I have like two friends and they have like 1,000 followers.’ Comparing myself to them was definitely a mistake, but I couldn't help it.”
She said she lost some friends, and when Abby followed them on social media, she would see them all doing things together.
“I would get really sad that I wasn’t invited,” she said.
She said she suffered from FOMO, fear of missing out.
“That would also cause a lot of depression and anxiety, cause I would get really anxious. What if somebody invited me to something that I missed? But nobody ever did," Abby said.
Eventually, she presented a TedTalk about how grueling it was to quit.
Pediatricians say social media consumption and guardrails are issues they deal with frequently with families and children.
“Most teens use social media. How they use it may interfere with basic needs, like sleep,” said Dr. Joel Stoddard in 2019. He's a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “It may get in the way of doing homework or socializing in person. It may expose them to inappropriate content or people who are threatening or promoting harmful or risky behavior.”
Current guidelines tend to focus on time limits and parental oversight, he said.
“However, for parents, it can be overwhelming to enforce these limits when they have a motivated teen. Reasonable regulations can help families out,” Stoddard said via email. “They can focus on requiring robust age verification and enhancing safety features that limit problematic use patterns and exposure to harmful content.”
States too seek accountability
Calls for accountability have been brewing for years. Colorado and dozens of states have sued.
Attorney General Phil Weiser, and others, have warned about features like instant notifications, autoplay and infinite scrolling.
“They make it very hard for you to stop because their goal is to keep you engaged even when they know it's harming you,” said Weiser, a Democrat who is running for governor, told CPR when the suit was filed in 2023. “Evidence shows clearly that they saw how these addictive features took young kids down black holes, harming their mental health.”
Lori Schott said during the trial she's seen internal documents that show the companies knew, but played down, the risks.
“I want transparency, I want truth, I want accountability, and I want change,” she said. The trial is expected to run through next month and could have an impact on more than a thousand social media addiction cases.
If you need help, dial 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also reach the Colorado Crisis Services hotline at 1-844-493-8255 or text “TALK” to 38255 to speak with a trained counselor or professional. Counselors are also available at walk-in locations or online to chat.
