The former psychotherapist of a California woman suing Meta’s Instagram, and Google’s YouTube for making their platforms addictive, and damaging her mental health has been called to testify.
Victoria Burke, the licensed therapist, appeared as a witness in a landmark civil trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court which is to determine whether Big Tech can be held liable for their app designs which have been widely blamed for fuelling mental health issues.
Plaintiffs of the trial claim that these platforms are not merely passive tools for communication but are “defective products” designed with sophisticated algorithms specifically intended to maximize engagement at the expense of psychological well-being.
Burke was called by lawyers for the plaintiff, known in court only as Kaley G.M., to set the stage for the next phase of the trial exploring whether and how Kaley’s engagement with social media as a child affected her wellbeing.
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Burke had worked as a therapy trainee for a school district when she diagnosed and treated then 13-year-old Kaley for several months in 2019. She told jurors that she initially diagnosed Kaley as suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, but later revised the diagnosis to social phobia and body dysmorphic disorder.
Burke did not initially draw any conclusions about whether social media directly contributed to Kaley’s struggles. However, on cross-examination, Burke said she believed Kaley’s social media experience was a “contributing factor” in her mental issues.
The therapist said Kaley often complained about online “bullying” by peers, and recalled at least one instance in which the girl told her she had “deleted” herself from a social media page, only to return later.
Burke however acknowledged that Kaley’s social media usage was not completely negative, saying that Kaley said that Kaley said she enjoyed creating video “art” to post online, though she became frustrated when others took credit for her work.
Read: Tech giants to go through landmark trial over social media addiction (
According to her lawsuit, Kaley began using YouTube when she was 6 and Instagram at age 9, and says the platforms contributed to psychiatric disorders, including depression and body dysmorphia. According to her lawyers, she has been a victim of deliberate designs and business models that intentionally hook children on advertising-supported online services for profit, despite being aware of the risks to mental health.
While Meta’s lawyers have pointed out that Kaley’s health records show a history of verbal and physical abuse and a fraught relationship with her parents, who divorced when she was three, Kaley’s own lawyer has pointed to a recent internal study by Meta where teens with difficult life circumstances more often said they used Instagram habitually or unintentionally.
This comes during a time of widespread concern over the effect of social media on children and teens. Many countries are considering restrictions on social media, with Australia banning children under 16 from such platforms.