In a landmark settlement Wednesday with 48 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, Meta agreed to pay as much as $17.1 billion in penalties and redesign its social media platforms to make them less addictive to minors.
The settlement also resolved claims that the company — owner of Instagram, Facebook and other platforms — had improperly collected personal data from children who used its products.
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The settlement came amid a high-profile federal trial in which four states — California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky — accused Meta of harming children. The states had sought as much as $200 billion in penalties. Lawyers for the states announced the settlement in court Wednesday morning.
The more than $17 billion will fund crisis intervention services, after-school programs, outdoor activities and youth mental health programming, according to Axios.
“Today, we have secured a settlement with Meta that will make social media less dangerous for our kids and make a world of a difference for children and their families,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms — and will do it within months.”
Time on platforms to be limited
Court filings released Wednesday show that Meta has agreed to implement new measures to curb addiction and make its apps safer.
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U.S. teens spend an average of 4.8 hours on social media every day, according to the American Psychological Association.
Those measures include limiting users younger than 18 to two hours per day on Facebook and Instagram. Those users will also be blocked from accessing the platforms from midnight to 6 a.m., notifications will be limited during school hours and kids will get a prompt for every 15 minutes of continuous screen time on Facebook or Instagram.
In addition, parents will now have the option to make their child’s feed chronological — instead of based on an algorithm — and turn off autoplay. Meta is also adding a new default setting that hides the number of likes and reactions on posts from kids – on both their own and others’ accounts.
“We’re also strengthening the technology we use to identify accounts that may be between the ages of 13 and 17, so we can ensure those accounts are placed in experiences designed for teens, even if they give us an adult birthday,” Meta said in a statement.
‘We cannot do it alone’
Meta asked other social media giants TikTok and YouTube to put the same measures in place.
“We want to ensure teens benefit from this new industry standard, but we cannot do it alone,” the company said.
The New York Times reports that Meta will pay up to $17.1 billion if Snap, TikTok and YouTube also settle with the states and agree to financial penalties and product changes.
The judge overseeing the federal trial must approve the settlement. And Meta still faces a slew of other lawsuits from school districts and individuals, with some of those headed to trial in the coming months.
It already lost a major case in March, when a California jury found Meta and YouTube guilty of offering an environment on their platforms that drove teens to become addicted. Meta was forced to pay out $3 million in damages in that case alone.
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