AM Show Hr 2 | Big Tech Put Kids on the Hook
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In this powerful episode of The Michael Berry Show, host Michael Berry interviews renowned plaintiff's attorney Mark Lanier about his landmark victory in a lawsuit against Big Tech giants Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and Google. Lanier reveals that these companies intentionally designed their platforms to addict children, using sophisticated algorithms to maximize screen time and profit, with internal documents proving they knew the devastating mental health consequences—especially for vulnerable teenage girls. The case centers on how tech companies exploited children's developing brains, promoted harmful filters that worsened body dysmorphia, and ignored warnings from their own employees and whistleblowers. Despite knowing the damage, executives like Mark Zuckerberg prioritized profits over child safety, even blocking protective measures. Lanier emphasizes that the legal win is not just about compensation but about exposing a systemic, deliberate exploitation of minors. He urges parents to actively engage with their children’s lives, not just monitor their devices, and warns that the battle is far from over, as companies may only make superficial changes for PR purposes. The episode underscores a moral and legal reckoning with Big Tech, drawing parallels to past corporate scandals like the Pinto gas tank and opioid crisis. Lanier, a conservative Christian attorney, reflects on how his faith and personal convictions drove him to take on these trillion-dollar corporations. He also discusses the ethical failures within tech leadership, where even CEOs reportedly banned smartphones for their own children. The conversation ends with a call to action: parents must reclaim their role as emotional anchors in their children’s lives, as technology’s addictive design makes passive parenting dangerously inadequate. The episode is a sobering indictment of corporate greed masked as innovation.
Big Tech intentionally designs social media platforms to addict children using algorithms that maximize screen time and profit.
Internal documents prove Meta and Google knew about the severe mental health impacts on teenage girls, including body dysmorphia and depression.
Executives like Mark Zuckerberg ignored warnings from employees and whistleblowers, prioritizing profits over child safety.
Parents must actively engage with their children’s lives—not just monitor devices—to detect early signs of harm and build protective relationships.
The legal victory is a moral win, but companies may only make superficial changes for PR, not genuine reform.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
The Case That Changed Everything
“They're making cigarettes for the eyes. They're trying to addict people because the more, as Google said, if we can increase from 300 million hours a day viewership to a billion, we can make an extra $50 billion.”
The Design of Addiction
“The algorithm does something even worse. Michael, what it does is it uses its artificial intelligence to figure out what others may want. And so, for example, we have a 10-year-old plaintiff. She gets on and she's taking gymnastics... every seventh or eighth video might be one that is feeding a perversion.”
The Vulnerable Target: Teenage Girls
“Meta, Mark Zuckerberg himself was sent the email saying we know Jonathan Haidt and others have told us. We know that we're causing body dysmorphia for a generation of teenage girls. We've got to take these filters down. And Zuckerberg's reply was, nah, that's paternalistic. If they have problems, that's their problem, not ours.”
Corporate Greed Over Child Safety
Lanier reveals how tech executives knowingly sacrificed children's well-being for profit, refusing to implement safety features that would have reduced nighttime screen use and mental harm.
Whistleblowers and the Hidden Truth
“We found out through another court in D.C. that they had hidden all of these documents from us. that they had claimed that they were privileged documents when they weren't. They would just add an attorney's name to the document to try and keep from giving it to anybody...”
“Meta, Mark Zuckerberg himself was sent the email saying we know Jonathan Haidt and others have told us. We know that we're causing body dysmorphia for a generation of teenage girls. We've got to take these filters down. And Zuckerberg's reply was, nah, that's paternalistic. If they have problems, that's their problem, not ours.”
“They're making cigarettes for the eyes. They're trying to addict people because the more, as Google said, if we can increase from 300 million hours a day viewership to a billion, we can make an extra $50 billion.”
“The algorithm does something even worse. Michael, what it does is it uses its artificial intelligence to figure out what others may want. And so, for example, we have a 10-year-old plaintiff. She gets on and she's taking gymnastics... every seventh or eighth video might be one that is feeding a perversion.”
Host
Guest
Mark Zuckerberg
person
Meta
organization
Mark Lanier
person
organization
Kaylee
person
Terry Poole
person
Texas Tech Law School
organization
Vladimir Guerrero
person
Eric Gagne
person
Johnson & Johnson
organization
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