Meta has agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion to settle claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children and teenagers.
The company will impose time limits, overnight restrictions and stronger parental controls for users under 18.
Meta denied wrongdoing, and the proposed settlement still requires court approval.
Meta Platforms has agreed to pay as much as $16.68 billion and make sweeping changes to Facebook and Instagram to settle claims that it designed the platforms to addict children and concealed the risks from parents and the public.
The proposed settlement resolves claims brought by states across the country and ends a closely watched federal trial that began Aug. 18 in Oakland, Calif. Meta did not admit wrongdoing, and the agreement remains subject to court approval.
The states alleged that Meta used features designed to keep young users scrolling, improperly collected children’s personal information and misled consumers about the potential mental and physical health effects of its platforms.
The lawsuits also accused Meta of collecting information from children under 13 without parental notification or consent, in violation of the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Some of that information was allegedly used to train machine-learning and generative artificial intelligence models, according to Reuters.
What will change for young users?
Under the proposed agreement, users under 18 will face a default two-hour combined daily limit across Facebook and Instagram. Teenagers will not be able to remove the limit without a parent’s permission.
The platforms will also be blocked for young users between midnight and 6 a.m., while notifications will be muted during school hours. Direct messaging will generally remain available so teenagers can communicate with friends and family.
Other changes include:
Hiding the number of likes and reactions on posts by default
Blocking cosmetic-surgery and extreme-makeup filters
Giving teenagers the option of a non-personalized feed
Allowing parents to turn off video autoplay
Strengthening efforts to detect children under 13 and remove their accounts
Expanding parental controls and notifications
Making it harder for suspicious adults to contact or find teenagers
An independent auditor will monitor Meta’s compliance, while the company will be prohibited from making false or misleading statements about the safety of its services. Most provisions will remain in effect for 10 years, according to the California attorney general’s office.
Who gets the money?
The precise value of the settlement varies among official and media accounts because part of the payment is conditional. Reuters calculated Meta’s maximum payment at $16.68 billion, while state officials have described the package as worth up to approximately $17 billion. Meta described a broader potential agreement valued at about $18 billion.
Meta said roughly $12.7 billion would be distributed over 10 years. An additional $5.3 billion would be released only if TikTok and YouTube adopt similar safety measures and make matching payments.
Meta’s payments will go to participating states. At least half of the money is designated for “restitution and remediation,” but each state generally has discretion over how its share is spent. Permitted uses include youth mental-health services, research, school programs, public education and, in some states, direct restitution or other consumer relief.
Meta calls for an industrywide response
Meta said the restrictions would be more effective if competing platforms adopted the same rules, arguing that teenagers may simply shift their attention from one app to another.
“We need an industry-wide solution,” Meta Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney said in the company’s settlement announcement.
The agreement does not end every legal threat facing Meta or other social media companies. Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat continue to face lawsuits filed by parents, school districts and individuals who allege that addictive platform designs contributed to depression, anxiety, eating disorders and other harms among young users.
The settlement marks one of the largest financial penalties imposed on a technology company and would establish the most extensive nationwide limits yet on how Facebook and Instagram may serve children and teenagers.