Meta will pay up to $18 billion to settle lawsuits brought by U.S. states over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed adolescent users, with $12.7 billion to be disbursed over a decade and the remaining $5 billion contingent on competitors adopting comparable safeguards.
The agreement, which resolves claims by 30 states and the District of Columbia over alleged design choices that fueled youth addiction and data privacy violations, requires Meta to implement a series of age-verification and usage restrictions within specified timelines. A non-personalized feed must be introduced within four months of the agreement’s entry into force, followed by broader compliance measures within six months and stricter age verification within one year.
Teen users on Facebook and Instagram will face a default daily time limit of two hours, with service blocked from midnight to 6:00 AM. Push notifications will also be disabled during school hours, from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, for adolescent accounts. The settlement addresses allegations that Meta’s platforms were engineered to maximize engagement among young users and that the company misled the public about associated risks, including violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) through improper data collection and retention practices involving users under 13.
Meta has denied any wrongdoing, asserting that it has taken steps to enhance child safety on its platforms. The conditional $5 billion portion of the settlement will only be paid if competitors including Snap, TikTok, and YouTube adopt stricter measures—such as a one-hour daily limit per app, nighttime blocks from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM, and comparable state payouts. The agreement does not specify penalties for competitors that fail to meet these conditions.
