Meta has reached a proposed settlement of up to $18 billion with a bipartisan coalition of 52 state attorneys general, addressing allegations that its Facebook and Instagram platforms were intentionally designed to foster compulsive use among children and teenagers. The agreement, which is currently awaiting court approval, resolves a 2023 lawsuit initiated by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general.
The lawsuit contended that Meta engineered features to drive addictive behavior in young users while simultaneously misleading the public, families, and users about the inherent risks of its platforms. Additionally, the attorneys general accused Meta of unlawfully collecting and utilizing data from children under 13, in violation of federal and state statutes, including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), California's False Advertising Law, and California's Unfair Competition Law.
Under the terms of the settlement, Meta will implement new restrictions for users under 18 on both Facebook and Instagram. These include a default two-hour daily usage limit, which can only be overridden with parental consent. This limit would be further reduced to one hour if YouTube and TikTok agree to similar provisions. Meta will also, by default, block teens from using its applications between midnight and 6 a.m. and mute most notifications between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., as well as during school hours. Parents will have the option to modify these nighttime and school-hour notification settings, though direct messages and certain account security or safety alerts are exempt from some of these restrictions.
Further requirements include concealing like and reaction counts from teenagers, prohibiting cosmetic surgery filters, offering an option for a non-personalized feed, enhancing parental supervision tools, and deploying additional age-verification technologies to identify users under 18 and remove those under 13. An independent auditor will oversee Meta's adherence to the agreement, and the company will be barred from making false or misleading statements about its safety features.
Meta has stated that the agreement involves approximately $18 billion in payments spread over ten years. Participating states are slated to receive roughly $12.7 billion. An additional $5.3 billion will only be disbursed if YouTube and TikTok adopt comparable changes, including one-hour daily limits, nighttime restrictions, and age-assurance measures, and each makes a matching payment. Meta indicated that this structure is intended to encourage industry-wide adoption of these protective measures.
California anticipates receiving between $1.5 billion and $2.1 billion from the settlement. Attorney General Bonta's press release stated that a significant portion of California's payment is earmarked for purposes related to the prevention or remediation of mental health or other harms to young Californians associated with social media use, with the final allocation to be determined by the Legislature and Governor. Meta expects to incur approximately $10 billion in legal expenses related to this agreement in the third quarter of 2026.
Most of the new protections are mandated to remain in effect for ten years. The agreement also establishes an independent research foundation dedicated to studying teen well-being and social media use.
