Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled Wednesday over social media “addiction” in a landmark Los Angeles trial — where he defended Instagram’s beauty filter feature as “free expression” and admitted that keeping kids under 13 off the platforms was “very difficult.”

Mark Lanier, the attorney representing a California woman who claims Meta’s platforms harmed her mental health when she was a child, peppered Zuckerberg with questions, including whether he believed people tend to use something more if it’s addictive.

“I’m not sure what to say to that,” the billionaire tech mogul, who started Facebook in a college dorm, replied. “I don’t think that applies here.”

Zuckerberg testified before a jury over claims his company’s platforms were engineered to hook young users and fueled a youth mental health crisis.

The plaintiff, a now-20-year-old only known by her initials KGM, has claimed she became addicted to social media as a youngster — which led to depression and suicidal thoughts.

She is suing Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube — TikTok and Snap have already settled.

As Lanier kicked off his questioning, he presented three options of what people can do regarding vulnerable people: help them, ignore them, or “prey upon them and use them for our own ends.”

Zuckerberg agreed the last option was out the question.

“I think a reasonable company should try to help the people that use its services,” he contended.

Lanier showed jurors at Los Angeles Superior Court emails from 2014 and 2015 in which Zuckerberg outlined goals to increase time spent on the app by double-digit percentage points — pressing him on whether that contradicted his prior statements to Congress.

The attorney asked Zuckerberg whether those internal targets undercut his 2024 congressional testimony that Meta did not give its teams the goal of maximizing time spent on its platforms.

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“If you are trying to say my testimony was not accurate, I strongly disagree with that,” Zuckerberg shot back.

Meta has denied the allegations that the social media platforms were designed to be addictive.

“The reverse is true: we’ve intentionally designed automatic defaults like Sleep Mode that encourage teens to leave the app and pause notifications over night,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

“Parents can go even further by restricting their teens’ total time to as little as 15 minutes a day or setting scheduled breaks when teens are required to exit our apps.”

The bellwether lawsuit is the first of roughly 1,500 consolidated cases accusing Meta and other tech giants of designing addictive products that harm children — a verdict that could expose the company to significant damages.

Zuckerberg was also pressed about Instagram’s use of beauty filters and a prior internal decision to lift restrictions on certain appearance-altering features despite research warning of potential harm to teenage girls.

On the stand, he described a ban on some filters as “paternalistic” and “a little overbearing,” saying the ultimate decision to allow them “came down to free expression.”

He acknowledged awareness of outside research suggesting beauty filters could negatively affect teen girls’ mental health, but maintained Meta weighed competing considerations in permitting the tools.

Beauty filters use augmented reality technology to smooth skin, reshape facial features and create idealized versions of users in real time — a practice critics say fuels body dysmorphia, low self-esteem, eating disorders and heightened pressure to pursue cosmetic procedures, particularly among adolescent girls.

Pressed on whether Instagram was truly off-limits to children under 13, Zuckerberg insisted the company’s policy has always been clear.

“There’s a distinction about whether someone is allowed to do something and whether we’ve caught them for breaking the rule. I don’t see why this is so complicated. It’s been our clear policy that people under the age of 13 are not allowed,” he testified.

He acknowledged, however, that enforcing that rule has been challenging, telling jurors: “I generally think that there are a set of people, potentially a meaningful number of people who lie about their age in order to use our services. There’s a separate and very important question about enforcement, and it’s very difficult.”

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri was in the hot seat last week and downplayed concerns that his app was addictive — comparing it instead to a Netflix binge.

“I think it’s important to differentiate between clinical addiction and problematic use,” Mosseri testified.

“I’m sure I said that I’ve been addicted to a Netflix show when I binged it really late one night, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as clinical addiction.”

When confronted with internal engagement benchmarks presented through Mosseri — including daily usage targets — Zuckerberg maintained the company’s focus was not addiction but competition and product performance.

He said such milestones were used internally to “measure against competitors” and “deliver the results we want to see.”

When questioned about his control over the company, Zuckerberg acknowledged the extent of his voting power.

“If the board wants to fire me, I could elect a new board and reinstate myself,” he said.

Zuckerberg was asked about comments he made on Joe Rogan’s podcast in which he claimed that he wasn’t worried about losing his job due to the voting power that he holds within the company.

At one point, when the plaintiff’s attorney suggested his testimony appeared carefully polished, Zuckerberg brushed off the characterization.

“I’m not — I think I’m actually sort of well-known to be very bad at this,” he said.

He also conceded that Meta could have acted faster in identifying underage users on its platforms.

“I always wish that we could have gotten there sooner,” Zuckerberg told the court.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, the judge also warned anyone wearing Meta’s Ray-Ban AI glasses in the courtroom that recording would not be tolerated.

“If you have done that, you must delete that, or you will be held in contempt of the court. This is very serious,” the judge said.

Members of Zuckerberg’s team were photographed entering the courthouse wearing the smart glasses, which are capable of recording video.

After finishing up a full day of testimony, Zuckerberg was escorted out of a back entrance of the courthouse with his lawyers and ignored questions from a Post reporter.

He was then whisked into the back seat of a white SUV.

With Post wires