August 24, 2026, 23:40 GMT | Insight
Meta Platforms executives told jurors Monday that the company responded to concerns about teens' problematic
Instagram use by adding parental controls, time-management tools and other safety features, while rejecting Tennessee's contention that the platform itself is addictive.
Meta Platforms knew that some teens were using Instagram more than they wanted, a senior product executive told jurors Monday during the company's defense in a consumer protection trial in Tennessee, but the company responded by building tools meant to give teens and parents more control.
Tessa Lyons, the vice president of product at Instagram, was asked on cross-examination about a colleague's "Teen Fundamentals" research presentation from 2020 that said children reported feeling addicted and out of control with their use of Instagram, but couldn't stop using it even though they wanted to.
Lyons said she wasn't familiar with the research from six years ago, but she was familiar with the fact that Meta conducts research into problematic usage, "and that we are worried about the fact that some teens do report using it more than they want in a way that has negative impacts. And that's why we've invested consistently in time management tools, and why we [put] the control of those tools in the hands of parents."
The 2020 research presentation prompted a testy exchange between Lyons and Thomas Cartmell, who is representing the
State of Tennessee.
"Is your testimony that research from six years ago is not applicable today?" Cartmell asked.
"Simply that I don't have a photographic memory that lasts six years," Lyons answered.
"Okay, but in your role, certainly you would be aware of research that suggests that, even without a photographic memory. Is that fair?"
"I've shared repeatedly that I'm aware of research that we intentionally conduct on problematic usage because it's a concern we have, but what I don't recall is the specific wording or specific statistics that might have been shared in a specific report six years ago," said Lyons.
"Well it's just not true that problematic use is just using Instagram a little more than a kid wants to, is it?" Cartmell pressed.
"I think there's a spectrum," said Lyons. "I think, for example, that some people might feel like they just use it a little more than they want, and I think a smaller number might feel that they use it so much that it has negative impacts on their life. We build tools that hopefully work for that full spectrum."
For example, a parent could force an Instagram shutoff after 15 minutes if they're concerned about their teen's overuse, while "other teens might just feel like they're watching a few too many entertaining videos and need a reminder after an hour."
Meta is defending against claims by the State of Tennessee that the company intentionally designed Instagram to be deceptively addictive for young people, and in so doing violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (see
here). Meta began its defense last week as the trial nears the one-month mark.
Lyons said only a small percentage of teens experience problematic Instagram use severe enough to negatively affect their lives.
"I'm not aware of the specific number, but I genuinely thought that it was in the lowest single digits," she said, clarifying that she had not looked closely at the numbers since 2024. "My recollection is the small percentage — low single digits — feel that they have problematic use in a way that affects their life. But I think that others might feel like some days they use Instagram more than they'd like to."
Lyons testified that Instagram introduced a slate of tools that allow parents to set daily usage limits and reminders of when those limits are reached. She said 67 percent of teens log off within five minutes of receiving these reminders. For the others, parents can simply decide to shut down Instagram altogether.
"I think for some teens, it might be appropriate that they use Instagram for more than an hour, and that that doesn't imply problematic use, but that's why we think parents should be in control so they can determine what's appropriate for their teen," she said.
The jury later heard from Tomas Kabbabe, senior director of data science at Instagram, who also emphasized user control and rejected the idea that Instagram's algorithm is optimized to maximize time spent on the platform. He said the company launched "Project Daisy" around 2018 to see if removing like counts from Instagram would improve teen users' well-being.
"The hypothesis was that by doing that, we would depressurize the app. Like people would feel more free about posting, and they would feel better about the app in general," he said.
Kabbabe said it had little effect.
"What we found is that yes, there is a subset of teenagers that actually feel that not having the like button is good for them, but actually most teenagers don't feel that much. They actually get bothered by the fact that they cannot see what content is popular or what isn't," he said.
Instagram ended up making hidden like counts an optional user setting. For Kabbabe, the idea proved to be a valuable lesson about using data to guide changes to its features.
"We cannot guide how we launch things in Instagram purely by intuition," he said. "A lot of the times we're wrong, and until we test, that's when we understand if the changes are going to be good or not."
Later, under cross-examination, Kabbabe rejected the state's fundamental contention that Instagram is addictive.
"Can someone be addicted to Instagram based on your experience?" asked Brian Phelps, a senior assistant attorney general from Tennessee.
"I don't think so," Kabbabe answered.
"You don't think so? Are there teens in your experience, as someone who works very closely on the algorithm, are there teens who have problematic Instagram use?" Phelps asked.
Kabbabe said he wasn't aware of any specific addiction phenomenon.
"If there are teens that have experienced it, that is something that we try to avoid," he said. "We try to give tools to prevent that from happening. We rank the content in the algorithm to prevent this from happening as well. We see that as our interventions. When we look at our tests, [they show] that people feel better as a result of the work that we do. I don't know if someone has problematic usage just because of Instagram, or they have like a problematic usage with their phone in general, and they're using Instagram as part of it."
Kabbabe also said he had not reviewed much of Meta's internal research on addiction and mental health harms.
— MLex viewed the trial on Courtroom View Network.
Please email editors@mlex.com to contact the editorial staff regarding this story, or to submit the names of lawyers and advisers.
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Data Privacy & Security, Technology
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Computing & Information Technology, Social Media
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North America, Tennessee, United States, Southeast USA