United Kingdom, Feb. 10 -- Social media companies such as Instagram and YouTube have been accused of creating "addiction machines" at the start of a landmark trial in California.

In his opening argument before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl and a jury on Monday (09.02.26), lawyer Mark Lanier argued that his client, plaintiff "K.G.M", suffered from mental health problems because of her social media addiction.

He said: "These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose."

Lawyers for Meta and YouTube told the jury that K.G.M - who will only be referred to by her initials as the alleged harms took place when she was a minor - had mental health issues because of other issu...