Meta Platforms has reached a tentative settlement of up to $18 billion with dozens of states to resolve claims that its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, have harmed children's mental health and contributed to addiction. The deal, announced Wednesday, averts a major trial that was underway in federal court in Oakland, California.
The settlement came during the second week of a trial where plaintiffs, including four states—California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey—alleged that Meta deliberately designed features to hook children and that the company concealed the extent of these harms. The agreement also resolves anticipated trials with 25 other states that had joined the multistate investigation into social media companies.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, whose state was part of the investigation and had filed its own trial against Meta, stated that the settlement imposes "unprecedented protections for kids and delivers record-setting money for Tennessee’s Children’s Digital Protection Fund." He described the agreement as addressing an "industrywide problem" and urged other platforms to adopt similar safety measures.
New Mexico, which had previously won a court case against Meta, was not part of this settlement. In March, a jury found Meta liable for knowingly harming children's mental health and concealing information about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, leading to a $375 million penalty. An additional $567 million was ordered by a judge in August for harms to young people, along with mandated safety measures such as monthly time limits for users under 18 and AI chatbot restrictions. Meta has stated it disagrees with this verdict.
Florida also opted out of the settlement, with the state's attorney general deeming it not sufficiently stringent.
In addition to the state-level actions, hundreds of school districts across the U.S. have filed lawsuits against major social media companies, seeking compensation for costs associated with addressing mental health issues and addiction among students. A federal case in California, initiated by a small Kentucky school district and chosen as a bellwether out of over 1,200 similar lawsuits against Meta, TikTok, Snap, and YouTube, was settled by all defendants before its scheduled summer trial.
Earlier this year, a separate bellwether trial resulted in a jury finding Meta and YouTube liable for designing addictive platforms without regard for young users' well-being. The plaintiff, identified by initials KGM, testified that social media addiction exacerbated her mental health struggles. The jury awarded $6 million in total damages. TikTok and Snapchat settled before this trial, while Meta and YouTube are appealing the verdict. This Los Angeles trial was the first of its kind, potentially influencing thousands of other individual lawsuits alleging similar harms, including those linked to social media-facilitated drug overdoses and suicides.