Meta reaches $12.2 billion settlement with states over teen safety
Meta has reached a settlement worth at least $12.2 billion with 47 states, Washington, D.C., and three U.S. territories over protections for young users on Facebook and Instagram. The agreement would require age checks, default time limits and other new safeguards for teen accounts.
The settlement was announced in a joint court filing Wednesday in Massachusetts. It resolves claims brought by attorneys general in the nationwide social media litigation against Meta, as well as a number of separate state cases, though it still requires approval through consent judgments.
Meta will make guaranteed payments totaling about $11.66 billion over 10 years, plus $75 million for the states’ investigation and litigation costs. It will pay another $459.3 million to resolve separate claims by a group of states.
Within one year, Meta must establish a system to assess whether Facebook and Instagram users in participating states are teenagers or younger than 13. New users whose ages have not been assessed will receive default teen protections.
Teen users will be subject to a two-hour daily limit across Facebook and Instagram by default. The limit will not include time spent messaging or watching long-form content, and it will reset at midnight.
Facebook and Instagram will also restrict teen users from accessing most platform features between midnight and 6 a.m. Push notifications must be disabled from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., while notifications during school hours will also be restricted.
A parent or guardian must approve any change to a less restrictive time limit or nighttime setting. Parents will also be able to impose stronger restrictions, including limiting a teen’s access during school hours.
The agreement requires Meta to hide like and reaction counts from teen users by default and block them from using filters that alter facial features to resemble cosmetic procedures. Teens must also be given a prominent option to use a non-personalized chronological feed.
Meta must continue measures designed to limit teens’ exposure to sexual content, self-harm and eating-disorder material, graphic violence and other age-inappropriate content. It must also maintain protections against suspicious adult accounts and provide parents with information about their children’s usage and messaging contacts.
An independent auditor will oversee Meta’s compliance and issue public summaries of its findings. Most of the agreement’s requirements will remain in effect for 10 years.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
