Meta to pay $17-billion to settle social-media harms lawsuit, add stronger child

Meta Platforms, Inc. META-Q agreed Wednesday to pay US$17-billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social-media addiction and settled claims filed by 47 states. The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention. “For years, Meta intentionally deceived the public about the addictive and harmful design features that have wreaked havoc on youth mental health,” Virginia Attorney-General Jay Jones said. The settlement “will put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm.” What to know about the landmark Meta lawsuit that ended in a $17-billion settlement If approved by the court, the deal will stop an avalanche of litigation by states against Meta, although the company still faces lawsuits from individuals and school districts across the United States. For the states, the settlement delivers money for programs to benefit children’s mental health, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counsellors. Advocates cheered the new protections, including default time limits and the disabling of features such as “like” counts. But “we cannot truly protect all children and teens until these protections are required on every platform and are permanent – that’s something only Congress can do,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project. A spokesperson for Meta said the changes to its Facebook and Instagram platforms are specific to the U.S. and won’t be implemented in Canada. In June, the federal government introduced a new digital safety bill that would force social-media platforms to block access for youth under 16. Platforms can seek an exemption if they can demonstrate they have implemented sufficient safeguards to protect children. A group of school boards in Ontario have filed suit against Meta, Snapchat and TikTok, alleging the platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use. California Attorney-General Rob Bonta said the money would be paid out over 10 years, with the state getting at least US$1.5-billion. New Jersey expects to receive at least US$525-million. Massachusetts said it was in line for at least US$366-million. Virginia’s share is worth US$353-million. Meta urges rivals to adopt similar safety measures Meta said in a blog post that it was “building on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens.” “Ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,” the company said. “We want to get this right for parents and teens, and that’s why we partnered with state attorneys-general to set a new industry standard.” The company urged rivals TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar safety measures. The US$17-billion settlement is a fraction of Meta’s 2025 revenue of US$201-billion. The agreement cuts short an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta in 2023. Chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg was among those expected to take the stand before a jury in federal court in California. Instagram head Adam Mosseri begins testimony at Meta child social media addiction trial The lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental-health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms and hiding them from the public. The case also argued that Meta violated federal laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent. The trial kicked off last week in Oakland, Calif., with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers overseeing the proceedings. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, began his testimony late Tuesday and defended Meta’s record and progress on child safety and privacy. The cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later. In addition, nine attorneys-general filed lawsuits in their respective states. New features to include time limits and curbs on push notifications Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to adopt a series of safety features, including a “hard cap” on daily time limits and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook. It will eliminate push notifications during weekday school hours and bring in “robust” age-assurance measures and “age-appropriate” content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm. There will be stronger and more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social comparison features such as “like” counts. An independent auditor will assess how Meta is implementing the safety features and how effective they are. Meta put the settlement at US$18-billion, a figure that apparently includes a large award for Texas. The company said 30 per cent of that amount – about US$5.3-billion – will be released to states only if rivals YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions: implementing similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a nighttime block and age-assurance measures; and paying the same amount, split between the two companies. Neither YouTube owner Google nor TikTok responded immediately to requests for comments. How Zuckerberg’s plan to replace Meta staff with AI unravelled Investigation was led by bipartisan coalition The federal lawsuit was the result of an investigation led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys-general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. It followed newspaper reports, first by The Wall Street Journal in 2021, that found that the company knew about the harm Instagram can cause teenagers – especially teen girls – when it comes to mental health and body-image issues. Meta has since added a host of safety features to Instagram, including separate accounts for teenagers with stronger protections around messaging and privacy, along with content restrictions. But child-safety experts, along with some former Meta employees, have long contended that the features are little more than window dressing. Arturo Béjar, a former Meta engineering director, said during his testimony last week that Meta consistently prioritized profits over safety in designing its products, focusing on how often and for how long people used them, even if it was detrimental to their mental well-being. “If you step away from the product, they are not going to make any money,” he said. While the four states in the Oakland trial did not officially say how much they had been seeking, Meta said in a court filing that financial penalties in the case could amount to as much as US$1.4-trillion – a figure legal experts said was unlikely, if not impossible. With reports from The Canadian Press