{"id":7806,"date":"2026-08-26T21:43:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7806"},"modified":"2026-08-26T21:43:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T21:43:39","slug":"meta-reaches-landmark-18-billion-settlement-with-states-in-trial-over-teen-social-media-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7806","title":{"rendered":"Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By BARBARA ORTUTAY, KELVIN CHAN and KAITLYN HUAMANI<\/p>\n

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state.<\/p>\n

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The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children\u2019s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

The agreement \u201cinstitutes real change, real transparency, real protections for children and teens across the country,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said.<\/p>\n

If approved by the court, the deal will stop an avalanche of litigation by states against Meta, although the company still faces lawsuits from individuals and school districts throughout the U.S. For the states, the settlement delivers money for mental-health programs for kids, including after-school or summer activities and digital literacy counselors.<\/p>\n

Advocates cheered the new protections, including default time limits and the disabling of features such as \u201clike\u201d counts.<\/p>\n

But \u201cwe cannot truly protect all children and teens until these protections are required on every platform and are permanent \u2014 that\u2019s something only Congress can do,\u201d said Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project.<\/p>\n

The settlement will be paid out over 10 years. California will get the largest sum of at least $1.5 billion, but several other states will still collect hundreds of millions of dollars each over the decade.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The settlement \u201cwill put an end to these dangerous practices and deliver meaningful relief that will protect children from online harm,\u201d Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said.<\/p>\n

Meta urges rivals to adopt similar safety measures<\/h4>\n

Meta said in a blog post that it was \u201cbuilding on our longstanding efforts to empower parents and support teens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnsuring teens have a safe and productive experience on our platforms is an absolute imperative for Meta,\u201d the company said. \u201cWe want to get this right for parents and teens, and that\u2019s why we partnered with state attorneys general to set a new industry standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company urged competitors TikTok and YouTube to adopt similar safety measures.<\/p>\n

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The $18 billion settlement is a fraction of Meta\u2019s 2025 revenue of $201 billion. Meta shares closed up about 1% Wednesday, although they rose as much as 4% during the day.<\/p>\n

The agreement cuts short an ongoing court case involving California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey, which were among 29 states that sued Meta in 2023. The federal trial kicked off last week in Oakland, California, where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been among the witnesses expected to take the stand.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit accused Meta of contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms and hiding them from the public. The case also argued that Meta violated federal laws by routinely collecting data on children under 13 without their parents\u2019 consent.<\/p>\n

The cases in other states had been expected to go to trial later, but are now resolved. The settlement covers 48 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and some U.S. territories. The only two states to be excluded are New Mexico, which went to trial in its case against Meta and won earlier this year, and Florida, where the attorney general said the settlement was not tough enough on Meta.<\/p>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier wrote on X that the \u201cpayouts are peanuts compared to the profound harms Meta\u2019s profit-driven addictive features inflicted on kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

New features to include time limits and curbs on push notifications<\/h4>\n

Under the proposed settlement, Meta agreed to adopt a series of safety features, including two-hour daily time limits that can only be disabled with a parent\u2019s permission and pauses for children using Instagram and Facebook.<\/p>\n

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The company will eliminate push notifications during weekday school hours and bring in \u201crobust\u201d age-assurance measures and \u201cage-appropriate\u201d content controls to prevent bullying and harmful material about eating disorders and self-harm.<\/p>\n

There will be stronger and more user-friendly parental controls and limits on social comparison features such as \u201clike\u201d counts.<\/p>\n

An independent auditor will assess how Meta is implementing the safety features and how effective they are.<\/p>\n

The company said 30% of the settlement amount \u2014 about $5.3 billion \u2014 will be released to states only if rivals YouTube and TikTok meet two conditions: implementing similar safety features, including a one-hour daily time limit, a nighttime block and age-assurance measures; and paying the same amount, split between the two companies.<\/p>\n

Neither YouTube owner Google nor TikTok responded to requests for comments.<\/p>\n

Meta officials declined to comment on whether they had conversations with their competitors about those conditions, but said they intentionally designed the agreement with the states to incentivize the rest of the industry to follow suit.<\/p>\n

Some of the safety measures Meta will implement, like disabling cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters, made sense regardless of whether competing platforms do the same, Meta said. Other features, like the overnight block, will function better if they are established across the board, the company said.<\/p>\n

If industry peers sign on to the agreement, Meta will implement stronger defaults for teens\u2019 daily time limit and the length of time for \u201cnight mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigation was led by bipartisan coalition<\/h4>\n

The federal lawsuit was the result of an investigation led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. It followed newspaper reports, first by The Wall Street Journal in 2021, that found the company knew about the harm Instagram can cause teenagers \u2014 especially teen girls \u2014 when it comes to mental health and body image issues.<\/p>\n

Meta has since added a host of safety features to Instagram, including separate accounts for teenagers with stronger protections around messaging and privacy, along with content restrictions.<\/p>\n

But child-safety advocates and experts, along with some former Meta employees, have long contended that the features are little more than window dressing.<\/p>\n

Arturo B\u00e9jar, a former Meta engineering director who testified last week in the Oakland trial, called the settlement a \u201csignificant milestone\u201d but warned that it should not be interpreted as an \u201call clear\u201d sign that Instagram is now safe for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement has a big problem in that it allows Meta to define harm,\u201d B\u00e9jar said in an interview. He urged the court to address that \u201cbecause it\u2019s one thing to say, \u2018Yeah, you only get like two hours of alcohol or two hours of cigarettes a day,\u2019 but it\u2019s still as bad for you because of what\u2019s getting delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents and advocates celebrated the settlement as a moment of accountability for Meta. Victoria Hinks, mother of Alexandra \u201cOwl\u201d Hinks, who died by suicide at age 16, said she was satisfied with the terms \u201cas long as they enforce it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like today finally something was done,\u201d she said outside the Oakland courthouse. \u201cI feel like justice is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Chan reported from London. Huamani reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, and Wyatte Grantham-Philips in Chicago contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

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California is among 29 states that sued the tech giant in 2023, but the deal cuts short the trial, which was expected to see CEO Mark Zuckerberg take the stand before a jury in federal court in Oakland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nMeta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7806\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meta reaches landmark $18 billion settlement with states in trial over teen social media addiction - 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