“Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”
In the 1990s, America watched as tobacco executives raised their right hands before Congress and swore that nicotine was not addictive. We now know they lied through their teeth. Internal documents later proved that cigarettes were chemically engineered to maximize dependence and purposefully marketed to children to create “replacement smokers” for a dying customer base.
Today we see the same lie unfold in real time. Only now the product is not Marlboro. It’s the algorithm.
A new class of titans – Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google – have built digital machines designed to get our kids hooked. The damage is not in their lungs. It’s in the wiring of their developing brains.
On February 9, a landmark jury trial began in California Superior Court that could fundamentally reshape the way social media is regulated. In his opening statement, attorney Mark Lanier put it plainly:
“These companies built machines designed to addict children’s brains, and they did it on purpose.”
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The plaintiff, known as KGM, is suing Meta (Instagram) and YouTube, alleging serious damage to mental health caused by social media addiction. Snap and TikTok were originally defendants but settled last month, avoiding a public trial that would have forced executives to testify and make internal documents public.
The case is groundbreaking because it sidesteps Big Tech’s usual shields, including Section 230 and First Amendment defenses, by arguing that harms arise not from user content, but from flawed product design: algorithms, notifications, and behavioral hooks designed to maximize “time on device.”
Just as Big Tobacco added ammonia to cigarettes to boost nicotine absorption, Big Tech developed dopamine loops to bypass impulse control.
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This is not speculation. It’s documented.
A new class of titans – Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google – have built digital machines designed to get our kids hooked. The damage is not in their lungs. It’s in the wiring of their developing brains. (iStock)
Platforms purposefully deploy intermittent variable rewards, the same psychological mechanism that makes slot machines addictive. When a child changes its food, it does not know what it is getting. That uncertainty activates dopamine, which trains the brain to keep pulling the lever.
Infinite scrolling removes stop signals. Autoplay clears the choice. Push notifications are timed to pull users back as soon as their attention wanders. These are not means of communication. They are systems for behavior change.
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Meta’s own employees warned internally that “Instagram is a drug.” They knew the platform was exacerbating body image issues for one in three teenage girls. But “time on device,” the metric that drives ad revenue, won anyway. Every time.
Infinite scrolling removes stop signals. Autoplay clears the choice. Push notifications are timed to pull users back as soon as their attention wanders. These are not means of communication. They are systems for behavior change.
Some of those employees have quit. Then they blew the whistle. And they brought coupons. Internal research found that 32% of teen girls who already felt bad about their bodies felt even worse after using Instagram. Forty percent of teenage boys experienced harmful social comparisons. Even more troubling, as young users who consumed eating disorder content became more depressed, they started using the app more.
Depression caused involvement. Involvement generated sales. That’s the business model. And when these findings became public, unsealed communications showed leaders debating whether to continue studying teen harm at all because the research itself was causing them trouble.
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They didn’t ask how to fix it. They asked how they could hide it.
Former technical director of Meta, Arturo Béjar, later confirmed what parents were already afraid of. After his own daughter received sexual requests on Instagram, Béjar conducted large-scale internal surveys. The results were astonishing.
More than half of users reported harmful experiences. Nearly a quarter of teens received unwanted sexual advances. Only about 2% of reported malicious content was removed.
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He warned top executives directly. Nothing improved. In fact, the protective measures were reversed.
Independent testing later found that most of Instagram’s advertised safety tools for teens either did not exist or were ineffective. Children could still access content about suicide and self-harm. Autocomplete recommended searches related to drugs and self-harm. Children under the age of 13 had easy access to the platform despite age limits.
Parents were given a false sense of security while Meta knew damage was being done.
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Even the US surgeon general sounded the alarm in 2023, warning of major risks to the mental health of young people.
And the damage doesn’t stop at fear and self-harm.
Social platforms have become digital drug markets for teens. Snapchat and TikTok function like modern open-air exchanges, where dealers advertise pills with emojis and disappearing messages. Kids think they’re buying Percocet or Xanax. Instead, they are given counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.
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The emergency room knows the outcome.
This also applies to mortuaries.
More than 40 states are now suing tech giants as the fallout piles up in hospitals, schools and homes across America.
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This is exactly how Big Tobacco collapsed. Denial. Internal documents. Whistleblowers. Lawsuits. Then a national reckoning.
We are there now.
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While Congress hesitates and the courts move forward, parents are the last line between their children and products designed to outsmart them. Here are four steps the experts suggest:
- Postpone smartphones as long as possible.
- Disable autoplay and push notifications.
- Explain the manipulation.
- Support lawsuits and legislation that require a real duty of care.
Big Tech bet it could make our kids addicted faster than the law could stop it. For a long time, that bet paid off. But the smoke is clearing. Now we can finally see the fire.
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It’s time to stop pretending these platforms are neutral public squares. They are dangerous products and should be treated as such, with warning labels, transparency requirements, age-appropriate design and real responsibility when design choices are expected to harm children.
Big Tobacco had its reckoning. Big Tech is next.
