Twenty-nine states are arguing in federal court that Meta knowingly hooked children on Instagram and Facebook, and while Michigan pulled out of the lawsuit, a package of bills that would restrict how tech companies target local students is waiting for a vote in Lansing.
The trial opened Tuesday, Aug. 18, in U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, before Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. States led by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are seeking up to $1.4 trillion in penalties and product changes, according to NPR. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri are expected to testify over the next six weeks.
Michigan withdrew from the coalition after what a spokesperson for Attorney General Dana Nessel described as excessive litigation costs imposed by early court orders, which the office characterized as part of Meta's strategy to weaponize discovery against plaintiffs, ClickOnDetroit reported. The spokesperson said the state expects any successful outcome to force nationwide changes to Meta's business model that will benefit Michigan youth.
Nessel's office said the attorney general remains a vocal supporter of the Kids Over Clicks bills, Senate Bills 757–760, which passed the Michigan Senate on April 29. The package would ban platforms from sending notifications to minors between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and during the school day, prohibit companies from using children's personal data to curate feeds, restrict minors' access to certain advanced AI chatbots and impose fines of $25,000 to $50,000 per violation, according to GovTech.
The bills still need approval from the Michigan House before reaching Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk. No House committee hearing date has been announced.
What parents are watching
Jennifer Tuskal, co-founder of the Michigan Parent Alliance for Safe Schools, said the federal trial and the state legislation share the same goal.
"This really comes down to responsibility," Tuskal told ClickOnDetroit. "While parents have a responsibility to guide our kids and set boundaries around technologies, we shouldn't have to out-engineer some of the most powerful companies in the world just to keep them safe."
Tuskal said the Kids Over Clicks approach requires tech companies to build protections into their products from the start rather than placing the full burden on families. Her organization has backed the Senate package.
State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat who co-led the bills, said in February that parents feel outmatched. "I hear from more and more parents expressing deep frustration that they have effectively lost their kids to their phones," McMorrow told Axios. "It's by no fault of the kids. A lot of these apps are designed to keep you glued to the screen as hard as possible."
What it means locally
Birmingham Public Schools serves roughly 7,400 students across Birmingham, Bingham Farms, Beverly Hills, Franklin and parts of Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township. If the Kids Over Clicks bills become law, platforms would be barred from pushing notifications to those students during school hours at Seaholm, Groves and district middle schools.
Meta has denied the states' allegations. The company has already lost two related cases in 2026: a Los Angeles jury in March awarded $6 million to a young woman who said she became addicted to Instagram as a child, and a New Mexico judge ordered Meta to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund.
The federal trial is expected to run through late September.
