An internal Meta research study called “Project MYST,” created in collaboration with the University of Chicago, found that parental supervision and controls — such as time limits and restricted access — had little impact on children’s compulsive use of social media. The study also found that children who experienced stressful life events were more likely to lack the ability to appropriately moderate their use of social media.
That was one of the remarkable claims revealed during testimony in the social media addiction trial that began last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The plaintiff in the lawsuit is identified by her initials “KGM” or her first name “Kaley.” Along with her mother and others who joined the case, she accuses social media companies of creating “addictive and dangerous” products that have led young users to anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and more.
The case is now one of several landmark trials to take place this year accusing social media companies of harming children. The results of these lawsuits will affect how these companies approach their younger users and could prompt further action by regulators.
In that case, the plaintiff sued Meta, YouTube, ByteDance (TikTok), and Snap, but the latter two companies settled their claims before the trial began.
In the trial now underway in LA, Kaley’s attorney Mark Lanier presented an internal study at Meta that he said found evidence that Meta knew about these specific damages but was not disclosing them.
In the MYST project, which stands for the Meta and Youth Social Emotional Trends survey, Meta’s research concluded that “parental and household factors have little association with the degree to which adolescents pay attention to their social media use.”
Or, in other words, even if parents try to control their children’s use of social media, whether through parental controls or even just household rules and supervision, it does not affect whether a child will overuse or compulsively use social media. The study was based on a survey of 1,000 teenagers and their parents about their use of social media.
The study also noted that both parents and teens agreed on this front, saying “there was no association between parent reports or teen reports of parental supervision and measures of attention or ability in the teen survey.”
If the study’s findings are accurate, it would mean that using things like Instagram’s built-in parental controls or time limits on smartphones doesn’t necessarily help teens be less prone to excessive social media use, the plaintiff’s attorney argued. As the original complaint alleges, teens are being abused by social media products whose flaws include algorithmic feeds designed to keep users scrolling, intermittent variable rewards that manipulate dopamine, constant notifications, inadequate parental control tools, and more.
During his testimony, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri claimed he was unaware of Meta’s MYST project, although the document appeared to indicate he had given his consent for the study to move forward.
“We’re doing a lot of research projects,” Mosseri said after claiming he didn’t remember anything specific about MYST other than its name.
However, the plaintiff’s attorney pointed to the study as an example of why social media companies, not parents, should be held responsible for their alleged damages. He noted that Kaley’s mother, for example, tried to stop her daughter’s social media addiction and use, even taking away her phone at times.
Additionally, the study found that teens who had a greater number of adverse life experiences — such as those dealing with alcoholic parents, bullying at school, or other problems — reported less attention to social media use. This means that children who have faced trauma in their real lives were more at risk of addiction, the lawyer argued.
On the stand, Mosseri seemed to partially agree with this finding, saying, “There are a number of reasons why this might be. One I’ve heard a lot is that people use Instagram as a way to escape from a harder reality.” Meta is careful not to label any type of excessive use as an addiction; instead, Mosseri said the company uses the term “problematic use” to refer to someone who “spends more time on Instagram than feels comfortable.”
Meanwhile, Meta’s lawyers pushed the idea that the study was more narrowly focused on understanding whether teens feel they use social media too much, rather than whether or not they are actually addicted. They also generally focused on putting more responsibility on parents and the realities of life as a catalyst for children, such as Kaley’s negative emotional states, rather than the companies’ social media products.
For example, Meta’s lawyers pointed out that Kaley is the child of divorced parents with an abusive father and faces bullying at school.
How the jury will interpret the results of studies like Project MYST and others, along with testimony from both sides, remains to be seen. However, Mosseri noted that MYST’s findings were not made public and no warnings were ever issued to teens or parents as a result of the research.
Meta has been asked for comment.