Meta has reached an $18 billion settlement with 52 US attorneys general regarding allegations that its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, were intentionally designed to be addictive and harmful to children. The agreement allows Meta to avoid admitting guilt, a common tactic to bypass potentially higher penalties from a jury trial that could have jeopardized legal protections for social platforms.
The settlement, payable over 10 years, is financially favorable for Meta, representing less than 1% of its 2025 revenue and significantly less than the potential $1.4 trillion maximum penalty speculated if the company had lost. A notable aspect of the settlement is that roughly 30% of the payment is contingent on other major tech companies like TikTok and YouTube adopting similar child safety measures. Meta is now campaigning for these other platforms to implement similar changes, positioning itself as a leader in online child safety.
As part of the agreement, Meta will introduce several new safety features for teen users within six months. These include a default two-hour daily screen-time limit on Facebook and Instagram, with prompts appearing every 15 minutes to encourage intentional use. Notifications will be muted between midnight and 6 a.m. and during school hours (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Additionally, teens will no longer see 'like' counts on posts. However, the effectiveness of these measures relies heavily on age-verification technology, which experts, like Dr. Alexis Ingber from Syracuse University, note is currently not robust and raises new privacy concerns by requiring more personal data from users.
