Meta Agrees to $17.1 Billion Settlement Over Teen Addiction Concerns

Meta has agreed to a $17.1 billion (£12.6 billion) settlement and new restrictions for teenage Facebook and Instagram users following a landmark US trial. California and 28 other states had brought the case against the technology giant, alleging that the company deliberately incorporated addictive features into its platforms to the detriment of younger users.

The suit further claimed that Meta misled users regarding safety protocols and unlawfully collected data from children under 13 without parental consent. While the jury trial in Oakland, California, was initially expected to span six weeks, a settlement was reached on August 26. The agreement requires Meta to pay at least $12.1 billion (£8.9 billion) over the next decade, with an additional £5 billion contingent on whether competitors like TikTok and YouTube adopt similar safety measures.

Under the terms of the settlement, Meta will implement strict changes for users under 18. These include a two-hour daily limit across both platforms, with mandatory pauses and reminders after 15 minutes of continuous use, as well as after 60 and 90 minutes of total activity. Furthermore, both apps will be blocked for minors between midnight and 6am, and notifications will be silenced during late-night and school hours.

Meta is also required to provide teenagers with a non-personalised, chronological feed, hide like counts by default, and remove filters that simulate extreme cosmetic procedures. Despite these concessions, Meta has denied the allegations, and the settlement does not include an admission of wrongdoing.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta praised the outcome, stating, “Meta has agreed to make massive transformations that will reduce the risk of harm from its platforms.” Meanwhile, the company emphasized its commitment to teen safety while calling on industry rivals to adopt similar safeguards to prevent users from simply migrating to less regulated apps.

The legal pressure on Meta continues to mount; earlier this month, a New Mexico court ordered the company to pay $942 million regarding failures to prevent child sexual exploitation on its platforms. As these legal battles unfold, the public discourse surrounding the company’s impact on youth will be further dramatized in the upcoming film The Social Reckoning, which features Mark Zuckerberg portrayed by Jeremy Strong.