Meta Platforms has agreed to pay up to $16.68 billion and make sweeping changes to Facebook and Instagram to settle claims that its platforms put children and teenagers at risk.
The agreement comes during a federal trial in California involving claims brought by 29 U.S. state attorneys general. The states accused Meta of designing its services to be addictive for young users, misleading consumers about safety measures and improperly collecting children’s personal data.
The broader settlement covers 47 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
The states had alleged that Meta used its platforms “to entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens,” while ignoring the damage they caused to the “mental and physical wellbeing of America's youth”.
Meta denied any wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.
Under the agreement, Meta will introduce a series of new safeguards for children and teenagers using Facebook and Instagram.
The measures include a combined two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram, with mandatory pauses designed to interrupt prolonged scrolling. Access will also be restricted between midnight and 06:00.
During the school year, push notifications will be blocked on weekdays between 08:00 and 15:00, while Meta will introduce stronger parental controls and more robust age-verification measures.
The company must also strengthen age-appropriate content controls and introduce restrictions on some social-comparison features, including beauty filters and visible “like” counts.
Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb described the agreement as a “monumental public health victory”.
“The safety features Meta is required to install will fundamentally and immediately change how young people use Instagram and Facebook,” he said.
The deal also resolves separate privacy claims linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which millions of Facebook users’ personal data was collected without proper authorisation.
California, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington, D.C. will receive a combined $459.3 million as part of that agreement.
Meta shares rose 2.3 per cent in early trading following news of the settlement.
The case is part of a broader wave of lawsuits against major technology companies, including Meta, Snap, Google and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
States, school districts and individuals have accused social media platforms of using features that encourage excessive use among young people and contribute to a youth mental health crisis.
Meta has argued that “social media addiction” is not recognised as a medical condition and has denied allegations that it intentionally misled users.
The settlement comes after several legal challenges involving Meta’s impact on children.
Earlier this year, a New Mexico jury ordered the company to pay $375 million after finding it had knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed information about child sexual exploitation on its platforms. A judge later ordered Meta to pay an additional $567 million in remedies and imposed new safeguards for young users, bringing its total financial liability in the case to $942 million.
Meta has said it plans to appeal the New Mexico rulings.
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