Meta Platforms has agreed to pay up to $18 billion and implement significant changes to its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, to enhance teen safety and address concerns about addiction and mental well-being. The agreement, announced this week, resolves a major lawsuit filed by 29 US states, which accused the social media giant of purposefully fostering addiction in young users and contributing to anxiety, depression, and overall harm to the "mental and physical wellbeing of America's youth."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who co-led the multi-state effort, described the settlement as a "major breakthrough" and a "watershed moment." He stated that changes would be visible on platforms like Facebook and Instagram within months. The lawsuit argued that Meta's business model "hooks" users, "holds" them on its platforms, "harvests" their data, and "hides" potential harms from the public.
The settlement, which comes after years of Meta's insistence that it treated underage users responsibly, was announced after only five days of trial proceedings. While Meta admitted no wrongdoing, the company avoided a potentially much larger payout, which it claimed could have reached $1.4 trillion. The $18 billion settlement is the largest of its kind since the "Big Tobacco" cases of the 1990s, which exposed cigarette manufacturers' research into nicotine addiction.
Meta has committed to restricting features on its apps that are blamed for keeping children engaged. These changes include limiting "endless scrolling" for users under 18, placing a two-hour daily time limit on Facebook and Instagram for minors, muting overnight and school-hour notifications, and hiding "likes" on posts for teenagers. An independent auditor will verify the enforcement of these measures.
However, critics point out that some of these changes will be optional or dependent on parental discretion. Furthermore, Meta's ability to enforce these measures relies on its capacity to accurately identify child users, a challenge it aims to address with new "age-assurance" technology next year. Teenagers have previously found ways to circumvent such checks.
While the immediate changes are US-specific, analysts predict that other countries, including the UK, may soon demand similar protections, given the global trend of governments attempting to regulate youth access to social media. The pressure on social media companies has been building, with Meta reporting it spent approximately $2 billion on legal fees in the second quarter alone to manage thousands of lawsuits worldwide.
This settlement with the states does not preclude over 1,200 other lawsuits brought by parents and schools. In March, a California jury found Meta and Google liable for severe depression and body dysmorphia in a 20-year-old woman, awarding her $6 million. Earlier this month, a New Mexico judge fined Meta $942 million for failing to warn the public about its platforms' dangers to children, which was the company's largest child safety fine until this week's agreement.
Experts suggest that social media companies are increasingly on the defensive. Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford University, noted that Meta likely settled because it "sees the writing on the wall and feels really exposed." Stuart Benjamin, a law professor at Duke University, stated that maintaining features that promote youth addiction now carries "too big a risk."
Campaigners for banning social media for children have expressed disappointment, arguing that the core algorithms responsible for harmful content will persist unless specifically disabled. The mother of Jools Sweeney, a 14-year-old who died in 2022, called the settlement a similar settlement involving Meta "a step in the right direction, but they don't go far enough." She expressed hope that the global community would scrutinize the settlement, preventing companies from denying the existence of harmful features on their platforms.
Former schools minister Lord Nash, advocating for a ban on social media for under-16s, called the California settlement "a significant moment but sadly not a game changer." He suggested that Meta's changes would place additional pressure on parents.
The settlement comes as major tech companies, including Meta, are heavily investing in artificial intelligence, though social media revenue, largely from advertising based on user data, remains their primary income source. The changes Meta has agreed to implement, driven by legal and public pressure, mark a notable shift in the company's approach to user safety, particularly for its younger demographic.